From: Chad Perrin Date: 2009-02-18T04:02:15+09:00 Subject: Re: Ruby file to Executable file -- for all OS --Qxx1br4bt0+wmkIi Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable On Tue, Feb 17, 2009 at 08:35:58AM +0900, David Masover wrote: > Chad Perrin wrote: > >On Mon, Feb 16, 2009 at 05:59:39PM +0900, David Masover wrote: > > =20 > >>Chad Perrin wrote: > >> =20 > >>>Generally, I think the best way to do it is to provide several differe= nt > >>>ways to install stuff, if you want cross-platform easy installs and yo= ur > >>>userbase will consist of more than just Ruby programmers. > >>>=20 > >>> =20 > >>I suppose that is best for brand-new users. However, it is a lot of=20 > >>work, and it means there may be some confusion as to which version is= =20 > >>the latest, and how to keep up to date. > >> =20 > > > >Not just new users -- non-technical users in general. > > =20 >=20 > Non-technical users in general would benefit even more from a good=20 > package management system. Much easier to run a 'gem update', even if=20 > you have to use that scary, scary commandline, than it is to go find the= =20 > website, compare the versions, uninstall the old one, download the new=20 > one, and install it all over again. I agree that non-technical users would benefit from a good software management system. Too bad most of them don't have such a thing by default -- so to get their hands on one even for so limited a case as installing Ruby gems, they first have to go through the effort of installing the software management system and the language's interpreter without the benefit of a software management system. Installing a Ruby application that depends on the Ruby-specific software management system is still an operation with too many steps. >=20 > >>Generally, even as a user, I find that I would much rather have a few= =20 > >>lines to paste into the terminal -- even better if I understand them --= =20 > >>than have to download something, find it, doubleclick on it, and maybe= =20 > >>still have to type a few lines in the terminal. > >> =20 > > > >I agree -- but then, I'm a technically oriented user on an OS that > >basically just installs gems for me. I'm not a non-technical user on MS > >Windows. > > =20 >=20 > On MS Windows, probably the best advice would be to find a one-click=20 > application which installs Ruby and Rubygems, and then provide the same= =20 > instructions -- open a terminal and type 'gem install myapp'. Ideally,=20 > you'd have a script (a batchfile?) which checks for the existence of=20 > Rubygems, downloads it if needed, and then downloads your app... =2E . . but it would be easier to just supply a one-click installer for the application itself, such as is available for most C/C++ apps on MS Windows. >=20 > I would suggest that the right approach is to fix usability problems=20 > with Rubygems (or replace it with something better?), rather than having= =20 > each app have to solve these same problems all over again. Oh, sure, I agree -- but until that happens, some of us will still need to have a way to work around any such problems when we want to distribute our applications. I'm not talking about a permanent solution so much as a stopgap until the state of the art for easy cross-platform software distribution advances to the point where the stopgap is no longer necessary. >=20 > And let's not forget, everywhere but Windows, there are a few commands=20 > that would work for that initial installation. Only on Windows do we=20 > need anything elaborate. Indeed. That's why I said, a couple emails further up the thread, that for many cases the "right" way to handle it in the here-and-now is to provide several different options for people to install applications written in Ruby. One, of course, would be to use gems on (for instance) FreeBSD. Another would be a one-click application installer for MS Windows users who are unlikely to want or need to maintain an entire Ruby ecosystem for multiple apps and a slew of libraries. --=20 Chad Perrin [ content licensed OWL: http://owl.apotheon.org ] Quoth Jeff Henager: "If the average user can put a CD in and boot the system and follow the prompts, he can install and use Linux. If he can't do that simple task, he doesn't need to be around technology." --Qxx1br4bt0+wmkIi Content-Type: application/pgp-signature Content-Disposition: inline -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v2.0.10 (FreeBSD) iEYEARECAAYFAkmbCTwACgkQ9mn/Pj01uKV2OQCaAjaqPn697yIuyVxSdiRArWas q94AoMuMxQ5+HidgKIA1GEbSnVkVtTDf =cgGu -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --Qxx1br4bt0+wmkIi--