From: Axel <a99.googlegroups.a99@...>
Date: 2010-02-18T21:30:16+09:00
Subject: Re: Tk on Windows and Mac OS X 10.6

> I know that there are many problems to install or distribute Ruby/Tk.
> I have a plan to create tcltklib.so includeing a Tcl/Tk environment.
> When using such kind of tcltklib.so, Ruby/Tk never load the Tcl/Tk
> libraries on the local environment (it means, no need installed Tcl/Tk).
> Although it may be a kind of advantage for some people, it loses the
> function about easy update of Tcl/Tk libraries (includes using Tcl/Tk
> extensions which are installed to local Tcl/Tk environment without
> re-create tcltklib.so) working with Ruby/Tk.

In advance, I was unhappy to need to install TCL (~ 23 MB), but
that was the only drawback. Installing ActiveTCL was without problems,
and as far as I understand, the licence is very permissive, even for
commercial use.  And I was glad to _easily_ be able to install
additional TCL-libraries via "teacup", for example "plotchart", which
enables me to easily plot simple graphs from within Ruby without
having to deal with gnuplot.

For MRI-Ruby (mingw) despite installing ActiveTCL, I think, you
need only to copy precompiled Ruby/TK-binaries into the right dirs and
set the PATH-variable to the right paths. You need not to compile it
yourself. Can anybody confirm this?

And, from the licences, would it be allowed to freely distibute these
binaries?

If all this is right, I think, it could be easy to install Ruby/TK on
Windows-MRI-mingw-Ruby; IMHO, there are only few things needed:

- A site for uploading and downloading precompiled binaries of Ruby/TK
  (or gem?)
  (Again, from the licences, would it be allowed to freely distibute
  these binaries?)
- A clear statement which binary is for which Ruby-version and
  TCL/TK-version (important).
- A clear description of how the install the downloaded
  Ruby/TK-binaries "copy files to xyz" (installer? gem? Roger Pack did
  something like this...)
- A statement that it is a drawback that you have to install
  AcitveState, but that it is the _only_ drawback and that it takes
  ~23 MB, that it's easy to install, that the licence is permissive
  even for professional use (true?) and that it has the advantage of
  enabling you to install additional packages, for example for
  plotting
- A short description of how to install additional TCL/TK packages
  using "teacup"
- A clear description on how to set the PATH-variable (or do it with
  an installer script?)

If my assumptions are right, I think with the above list it would be
easy to install Ruby/TK on Windows-mingw-MRI-Ruby.

Axel