David, Maybe something like rubyscript2exe is a way forward. See:
http://www.erikveen.dds.nl/rubyscript2exe/ I have used perl2exe, to do almost exactly what you appear to be wanting achieve. It includes an embedded server and the app launches the default user's win32 browser, making it pretty seamless for the user to get going. With rubyscript2exe you get one executable wrapping up all the ruby and rails stuff. On a side note, in the perl version I had some code to replicate and populate the application's paths, but mostly the perl2exe took care of the bulk of this. So far I have not had chance to try out rubyscript2exe so if anyone can add their experience I'd love to know. John On Mar 5, 10:44 am, bill walton <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi David, > > On Thu, 2009-03-05 at 09:21 +0100, David Nitzsche-Bell wrote: > > So the question is reduced to: > > > Is it possible to develop a RoR app that someone can download and > > install all necessary pieces (web server, database, RoR, and app) for > > local use only without any technical knowledge? > > We're developing a product that will be distributed in exactly this way. > I (and many others) began RoR using InstantRails which is a > 'zero-footprint', full stack development environment.The distro also > includes a couple of fully functional example applications. So, IMHO, > the pattern's been sufficiently vetted and that's model we'll be using. > We haven't decided whether to stick with the .zip approach IR uses or to > go the 'installer' route, but are tending towards .zip. > > The only 'hard part' I'm anticipating is 'stripping down' InstantRails > so that the package only contains the 'stuff' needed as a deployment > platform for locally run apps. The IR download is pretty big because it > includes pretty much everything you'd need for development and even > small deployment. Lots of opportunity for 'slimming'. Apache - gone. > Scite - gone. PHPAdmin - gone. Etc. > > Feel free to contact me off-line if you'd like. > > Best regards, > Bill --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Ruby on Rails: Talk" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rubyonrails-talk?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
