Run Rubyscript without Ruby Installation

Question

Not entirely new to ruby, but hardly proficient at it. My goal is to set up a similar condition to ruby as I have with Tcl, running scripts that do not require the language download and installation. This is done fairly well with the Tool Command Language (Tcl) Via the Tcl3dsh-win32-0.5.0 starpack, running almost every Tcl application very well, with out the need for prior Tcl installation on the let's just call it windows10 I guess. Now why did I want the Ruby1.8.6, for the OpenGL and Glut library capabitities i believe it was, and perhaps referenced from some link somewhere in regards to getting the 'rubyscript2exe' interpreter-bundler-compiler? to work. It's my understanding that rubyscript2exe is outdated for the newer ruby installs. I have never got it to create and executable bundled-thing whatever. So I tried the 'ocra', this I got to create just one and only one exe of: puts 'Hello ocra ruby.' sleep 4.5 that did create a nice little stand alone ruby executable-like application that did indeed run when exported to the windows10 system devoid of any ruby installations. Thats where it ended, at that time on the development machine where I was creating the ruby executable-like applications I had installed the version 'ruby193' VIA one-click installer executable selecting all the options and associations with the TK included checked. It installed itself in my C: root in directory 'ruby193', where the batch files and other files referencing the 'ocra' gem ( and the 'rubyscript2exe') now reside. Ocra executable ruby applications, the one that did work and the others that did not were ran from the desktop via a command-line console created with a 'start' command wrote in a .bat file, thats how I been doing my command-line stuff. The 'hello world' .rb did work but anything with the tk threw that: 'Tk85.dll is missing not found error'. Fairly positive that was the error, haven't been as scientific as I should be taking notes of every detail of the adventure. So tried the 'rubyscript2exe' gem no luck, referenced the 'use it with the ruby186 version' advice. I havent seen my OpenGL ruby applications running in awhile so what-the-hey. I downloaded the ruby186 on top of the existing ruby193 VIA the ruby186 one-click installer executable. It built itself in the root alongside the 'ruby193' directory in a directory labled just 'ruby', noting during installation that it had no Tk installation associations or bindings. Saying to myself well this isn't going to work either is it. I remember the 'rubyscript2exe' application having Tk specific compile instuctions, in the documentation, which I followed (which did not work for me). Just skimmed the Ocra documentation again, I don't see reference to Tk specific. Perhaps in the adding libraries and I am missing it, as I stated I am hardly proficient at all this, but really do try hard.

my question: How shall I proceed with the aim of creating a ruby executable-like program that runs on a windows-10-ish system capable of running the Tk GUI, (I will start with the Tk GUI, if i get that up and running I can then progress to attempting the OpenGL GLUT shader stuff next). Tk should be current, so I imagine my focus would be getting the ocra gem to work with Tk, I did also do the compile-like command, in my start.bat console, as per ocra documentations instructions: https://github.com/larsch/ocra and http://ocra.rubyforge.org/ ocra whateverscript.rb and with variants similar to how it was to be done when using the 'rubyscript2exe' + '-ocra--tk' I think, idda know what I did, got upset. Any thoughts?

This is my first-ever question posted, please forgive my inexperience and the verbose nature of it in my attempt to be thorough.

Answer 1

It sounds like your problems might be stemming from the fact that you're using multiple versions of ruby on the same system without a version manager. When multiple versions of ruby live on the same system, their gems and dependencies can get all criss-crossed and cause terrible problems.

On Windows, I've had good luck with Uru: https://bitbucket.org/jonforums/uru

Also, you may want to consider installing gems using the bundle gem, which will keep them encapsulated to specific projects and specific ruby versions.

That all being said, if you want to get your scripts to run as a self-contained executable but are having trouble with dependencies and ruby versions, check out traveling ruby:

http://phusion.github.io/traveling-ruby/

It works very much like a starpack in that all your scripts are wrapped up with the proper version of ruby, so users needn't install anything and you needn't wrestle with compilation or installing ruby on your own system.

Answer 2

My apologies for late response, lost my RubyScript.exe creation enviornment. Now re-setup on Toshiba, 64-bit, Windows10 pro. Using Ruby: ruby 2.3.3p222 (2016-11-21 revision 56859) [i386-mingw32] I got this non-Tk console application to build with ocra:

enter code here 
irb

using command:

enter code here 
ocra throwRUBYconsole.rb

in the 'start'.bat form of a windows terminal, on the desktop, It of course does not work on my non-ruby enviornment machine (same win 10 setup on a gateway). Reading ocra documentation, ocra source. Reading traveling ruby, same. Have (lost my list will try to remember) Darb, rubyscript2exe, exerb to go thru, This will take a bit of time.

Here is my Tk test application:

enter code here 
require 'tk'
require 'tkextlib/tile'

root = TkRoot.new {title "Lightyears to Parsecs"}
content = Tk::Tile::Frame.new(root) {padding "3 3 12 12"}.grid( :sticky =>     'nsew')
TkGrid.columnconfigure root, 0, :weight => 1; TkGrid.rowconfigure root, 0,   :weight => 1

$lightyears = TkVariable.new; $parsecs = TkVariable.new
f = Tk::Tile::Entry.new(content) {width 13; textvariable $lightyears}.grid(   :column => 2, :row => 1, :sticky => 'we' )
Tk::Tile::Label.new(content) {textvariable $parsecs}.grid( :column => 2,  :row => 2, :sticky => 'we');
Tk::Tile::Button.new(content) {text 'Calculate'; command {calculate}}.grid(  :column => 3, :row => 3, :sticky => 'w')

Tk::Tile::Label.new(content) {text 'lightyears'}.grid( :column => 3, :row =>    1, :sticky => 'w')
Tk::Tile::Label.new(content) {text 'is equivalent to'}.grid( :column => 1, :row => 2, :sticky => 'e')
Tk::Tile::Label.new(content) {text 'parsecs'}.grid( :column => 3, :row => 2, :sticky => 'w')

TkWinfo.children(content).each {|w| TkGrid.configure w, :padx => 5, :pady => 5}
f.focus
root.bind("Return") {calculate}

def calculate
  begin
     $parsecs.value = (0.30659458*$lightyears*10000.0).round()/10000.0
  rescue
     $parsecs.value = ''
  end
end

Tk.mainloop