[ruby-talk:7352] Re: Packaging Ruby

> Several (round trip) light years ago I found an earlier version of
> perl2exe to be extremely useful.  It has since moved to
> (http://www.indigostar.com/perl2exe.htm):
>
>     Perl2Exe is a command line utility for converting perl scripts to
>     executable files.
>
>     This allows you to create stand alone programs in perl that do not
>     require the perl interpreter. You can also ship the executable
>     file without having to ship your perl source code.
>
>     Perl2Exe can generate executables for Win32 and Unix target hosts.
>
>     Perl2Exe also allows you to create no-console programs using Tk.
>
> I would like to see a Ruby2Exe.
>
> Conrad Schneiker
> (This note is unofficial and subject to improvement without notice.)


Its funny you should mention Perl2Exe as I had downloaded it earlier today 
(the eval version) and had been playing with it.  Although the executables it 
produces are kind of large (since it has to include the interpreter and 
necessary modules), the created executables ran pretty quickly on my Windoze 
machine (even a little Tk app I had coded).  As mentioned, I was able to get 
a Tk app and a little test app using ODBC and an MS Access DB to work with 
Perl2Exe.

I like Perl.  I sure like it better than Python.  And it sure beats the hell 
out of all of the VB and Delphi programming I used to do.  But, man, since I 
found Ruby and started reading Dave and Andy's book, I have day-dreamed about 
being able to do create Ruby-GUI-ODBC apps and being able to create an exe 
that I could simply post to the web or give to the client.  I know that some 
of the pieces are there, but if the whole package could be put together, wow, 
that would be awesome.

Jamey.