How to make my application executable in Mac OS X?

Desktop wxRuby
1

Hi all,

I am trying to make my new wxRuby app look as professional as possible
on Mac OS X and I’ve encountered two annoying problems I could use some
help with.

  1. How do I make my app into an executable?

So far I’ve tried these 2 options:

a) Make an executable shell script that calls the app

Simple but opens a terminal window as well as my app => unnacceptable.

b) Use platypus to create an apple app.

Very nice but there are still 2 icons in the dock: the platypus
application and my wxRuby icon. How can I reduce that to one icon?

Crate allows you to static link your whole app + gems + ruby in one
executable. This might solve my problem but is really not a route I want
to go unless there is no other option.

  1. How do I rename the first menu column?

The default is “ruby”, should be my application’s name.

Thank you in advance for your help.

Regards,
Simon

2

Hi

Simon Vdm wrote:

I am trying to make my new wxRuby app look as professional as possible
on Mac OS X and I’ve encountered two annoying problems I could use some
help with.

Given the questions you’re asking, the following should make sense:

http://weft-qda.rubyforge.org/svn/trunk/weft-qda/rake/rake_osx.rb

It tackles both the issues and also packaging in a .dmg.

b) Use platypus to create an apple app.

Very nice but there are still 2 icons in the dock: the platypus
application and my wxRuby icon. How can I reduce that to one icon?

The created App bundle has a file Contents/Info.plist, the XML
description. There’s an element “LSUIElement” - change the value of this
from 0 to 1. Then it will only show a single icon in the dock, which as
you probably know you can change with Wx::TaskBarIcon.

I think Platypus 4 has an argument for this, but the first release was
buggy so I carried on using 3.

Crate allows you to static link your whole app + gems + ruby in one
executable. This might solve my problem but is really not a route I want
to go unless there is no other option.

  1. How do I rename the first menu column?

The default is “ruby”, should be my application’s name.

I haven’t figured any way of doing this apart from bundling my own ruby
and renaming the executable that’s bundled by Platypus. wxWidgets
development has a method wxApp::SetAppDisplayName which sounds like it
should do the right thing. But wxRuby 2.0 is based on the stable 2.8
release.

alex

3

Dear Alex,

your answer was quick and to the point. Problem solved.
The rake file is a nice bonus indeed.

Thank you,
Simon