Article:		Ruby/Tk Primer, Part 3
Subject:		Great article quick question
Date:		2004-12-05 21:15:44
From:		allClass
First I'd like to say that I really enjoyed this article. Thank you so much for writing it. I am really enjoying Ruby (I'm an x smalltalker). I find my Ruby scripts are really short and readable as compared to stuff in other languages. Here's the question. Can TK/Ruby apps be wrapped and shipped as an installed app?

Showing messages 1 through 2 of 2.

• Great article quick question
  2005-01-17 09:07:38  Christopher Roach | [View]
  
  
  I just wanted to point out one more option for wrapping Ruby/Tk apps for shipping and installation onto other computers. That solution would be RubyGems. The following is a synopsis taken from the RubyGarden website:
  
  RubyGems is a new approach to managing packages of Ruby code. The most convenient feature for the average user is that gems (apps and/or libs) can be downloaded and installed in one step from the command-line.
  
  I haven't really looked into this technology that much yet, but it sounds just like what your looking for. If you want to find out more about RubyGems, you can do so at the RubyGems Wiki or you might want to look into the newest edition of the Programming Ruby book (Pickaxe II) from the Pragmatic Bookshelf where you'll find a chapter entitled "Package Management With RubyGems".
  
  I hope that helps out, and thanks once more for the kind words. Oh, and be on the lookout for more Ruby articles in the near future.
  
  Christopher

• Great article quick question
  2004-12-27 16:04:43  Christopher Roach | [View]
  
  
  First, let me start by apologizing for such a late reply, but I've been out of the country for the past few weeks.
  
  Next, let me just say that I really appreciate your comments on the article. The best reward for writing these articles is just knowing that someone out there read them and liked them.
  
  Finally, I wanted to reply to your question. I have to admit that I hadn't really looked into creating an installer for my Ruby/Tk scripts. For the most part I just save the script to a USB key or email it to myself to use it another computer. In other words, I have so far only developed Ruby/Tk apps for myself.
  
  That said, I did find a couple of articles on the O'Reilly Network that may be of assistance to you. They can be found at the following addresses:
  
  PackageMaker Pro Tips
  Creating Easy-to-Deploy Unix Applications for OS X
  
  I haven't really found any good open source applications to wrap Ruby/Tk apps yet, but I'll keep looking. In the meantime, I hope the articles I've pointed out above help a bit, and if I find out anything else of interest, I'll post it here.
  
  Thanks again for the comments.