How to generate a runnable Mac standalone from Windows

Richard Gaskin ambassador at fourthworld.com
Wed Mar 17 15:15:41 EDT 2010


Scott Rossi wrote:
> Recently, Richard Gaskin wrote:
>> ...
>> As a workaround based on an earlier related discussion here, I'm
>> considering storing a zipped copy of the Mac app bundle, and spitting
>> that zip file out with an instruction for the user to unzip it on OS X
>> before running it there.
>>
>> But that's a lot of hassle for them and many users will just get confused.
>>
>> It'd be much nicer to be able to spit out a working Mac app bundle - but
>> how can I do that from Windows?
>
> DMG ?

Thank you Scott and Lyn for the suggestion, but for our needs that still 
requires some intermediate file as with our Zip workaround.  The upside 
to Zip is that it makes a decompressed copy in the same folder on the 
USB drive, runnable in place and we can then delete the Zip when our app 
runs.

With a DMG the user has to figure out why they have a new volume on 
their Mac desktop (you'd be surprised by how many users find DMGs 
confusing (see the links at the bottom of 
<http://revjournal.com/blog.irv?pid=1261255254.58153>).

For now we'll go with a Zip, but it says a lot about the Mac-centric Rev 
community that not being able to make runnable Mac apps from Windows 
isn't a big issue (yet).

Given the Mac's Unix requirement of setting the executable bit I don't 
think there's a way around it. It's just hard to imagine that every 
RevStudio for Windows user logs into terminal on their Mac and chmods 
their Mac standalones to make them runnable; maybe there just aren't 
that many Rev folks with a Windows license deploying to Mac OS.

--
  Richard Gaskin
  Fourth World
  Rev training and consulting: http://www.fourthworld.com
  Webzine for Rev developers: http://www.revjournal.com
  revJournal blog: http://revjournal.com/blog.irv



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