From: ptkwt@... (Phil Tomson)
Date: 2005-10-07T05:26:48+09:00
Subject: Re: run Ruby from a CD in MS Windows

In article <1128605311.981493.62380@g14g2000cwa.googlegroups.com>,
smartpig <king_xhuang@yahoo.com> wrote:
>I am new to Ruby.
>I have a project that requires running an application from CD without
>pre-install software on a user's pc (Windows OS). I was planning to use
>java but the jre is too large (about 50 mg). My client want the
>application + its runtime lib/engine less than 10 mb.
>I like try Ruby but I don't know if Ruby can meet my client's
>requirement?
>I installed Ruby 1.8.2 on my pc, it takes about 30 mb space. Since my
>application need only do a few simple things such as: check Windows
>registry, create a socket to talk to another application and openning a
>dialog box. I think I only burn a few dlls and ruby scripts to the CD
>but I don't konw which are need. Can some give me a guide? Thanks for
>help!
>

I did this very thing about 1.5 years ago for a very large client (which 
makes most of the microprocessors out there).  We couldn't fit the JRE on the 
CD because we were running out of space.  We also needed to fit in under 
10MB.  Ruby worked out well for this.  You don't need a lot of the libraries 
that come with the full-blown Ruby install.  As I recall, I got it down to 
under 5MB (and we were doing things like checking the windows registry).

The way I approached it was to first got through my Windows Ruby installation 
and start removing libraries/dlls until stuff stopped working.

If you need a GUI library, I would suggest you check out FLTK as it is very 
small.

Phil