What's the best cross platform approach (Windows/Mac) to deploy a simple service/daemon (with simpl

Hi,

I’m getting confused re the range of options for development &
deploying some simple code & UI to both Windows & Mac. Can anyone
assist re a good direction here. I do like Ruby, however if it makes
sense to move away from this (e.g. java, c#) then so be it. Which
development option would people suggest for this?

REQUIREMENTS

  1. Support for Windows & Mac
  2. The installation should be one-click and package all required
    dependencies as much as possible.
  3. Scheduling capability required - so either via (a) installed as a
    service/daemon, or (b) ability for installation to schedule periodic
    call to script (former is preferred)
  4. Functionality component requires - ability to access/parse
    web-sites, and then ability to make HTTP(S) calls out to my site to
    store parsed data. So heave on HTTP(S) methods. Proxy support
    required in app, so ability for user to enter
    host/port/username/password for the proxy server.

DEV OPTIONS ?? - This is where I need help/advice. Some of the many
options that come to mind:

  1. Develop in Ruby and then find packaging product to create Windows &
    Mac installation packages - not sure how doable this is yet?
    Especially if I need the installation to effectively install as a
    service.
  2. Develop in Java for cross-platform? but then needs users to have
    installed JRE?
  3. Develop as Firefox addon? I’m not across this, but even if you
    can write custom code, then the issue would be firefox would have to
    be running I guess.
  4. Develop windows & Mac versions separately, for example using Visual
    Studio Express to develop the windows version (assuming it can do HTTP
    work & create packages for installing services).

What would people suggest here? (would be nice to write once, push a
button and then get the Mac & Windows installation packages spat out)

Thanks

i would create separate functions for each Os, set up a vm network…
windows xp, vista and mac… just to test your scripts…

if os = ‘windows xp’ then

perform these functions

else

if os = ‘osx mac’ then

perform tghese functions

…etc…

this is just to give you a idea of how i would do it… its improper…
i hope it helps…

Hi,
There are many ways to get the information about the information about
the
operating system and
implement the logic as

  1. get the system info at ENV variable

ENV.to_hash.each do |key, value|
puts(“#{key} - #{value}”)
end
2. use ‘rbconfig’
require ‘rbconfig’
case Config::CONFIG[‘host_os’]
when /mswin|windows/i
puts “its windows”
else
puts “Its not!”
end

On Tue, Sep 15, 2009 at 11:01 AM, Bigmac T. [email protected]
wrote:

…etc…

this is just to give you a idea of how i would do it… its improper…
i hope it helps…

Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.

Thanks and Regards
Saurabh P.
+91-9922071155
skype: sorab_pune
yahoo & gtalk: saurabh.purnaye
msn: [email protected]

On Monday 14 September 2009 08:05:15 pm Greg H. wrote:

  1. The installation should be one-click and package all required
    DEV OPTIONS ?? - This is where I need help/advice. Some of the many
    options that come to mind:
  2. Develop in Ruby and then find packaging product to create Windows &
    Mac installation packages - not sure how doable this is yet?
    Especially if I need the installation to effectively install as a
    service.
  3. Develop in Java for cross-platform? but then needs users to have
    installed JRE?

Most have it installed, and rawr might handle that.

Oh, and use JRuby, not Java.

Another possibility is to make it a pure web service, but you haven’t
given us
enough information:

  1. Scheduling capability required

If it wasn’t for that, I’d strongly suggest a web service. As it is, I
still
might. Not all apps can be web apps, but for those who do, you pretty
much
don’t have that deployment question – people “install” your website by
visiting it. Worst case, you tell them to install Firefox, so you don’t
have
to support IE…