Re: ANNOUNCE: freeWrap 6.1 released

slebetman@yahoo.com <slebetman@gmail.com> wrote:
> Freewrap is simpler to use. Just one command and BAM you have an
> executable.
> It doesn't depend on special directory structures etc.
> I tried using Starkits but then gave up. I only need to support Windows
> anyway so the multi-platform nature of Starkits don't give me much.
> Plus, it's actually Starkits that's serving the same purpose as
> Freewrap. They may be roughly the same age but I was delivering
> Freewrapped binaries to clients long before Starkits were on Google's
> radar. I found freewrap first because it was on Google at least one
> year before starkits.

Here, hear! I think the same thing. Currently, I am using Starpacks,
but only because I need to support the Mac. Starpacks are really complex
and for us have actually caused some problems because of the wrapping
mechanism and the fact that certain commands no longer work under a
starpack with no workarounds.

Starpacks only advantage is if you need to support multiple platforms
in a SINGLE executable, rather than having different executables for
each platform.

> I much prefer freewrap's way of doing things. Now.. if only someone
> would port freewrap to the Mac...

I tried doing it once. The problem was that freeWrap needs to write to
the end of an open executable to make its own executable. This is
verboten on the Mac so I don't think it is possible.

<THINKING OUT LOUD>

Starpacks seem to be what everyone is working on so it might be possible
to make starpacks as simple as freeWrap. What we did was make our
build system create the directory structure required by starkit and
then copy all our Tcl files into it. Then, the build system does the
starpack wrapping commands.

What could be done would be to add another command to the starpack
sdx.kit that does this step or even better, finds all the dependencies,
puts them in whatever directory structure it deems necessary, and then
does the wrap. Maybe if that were to happen, more people would be
on the starpack bandwagon?

</THINKING OUT LOUD>

Joey
Received on Thu Sep 29 14:36:03 2005