CODEWITHSUNDEEP
rubycommand-line-interface
Vladislav Kovechenkov
Vladislav Kovechenkov

Reputation: 137

Is there a way to build CLI with no dependencies required?

Recently I though about scaffolding a little CLI with Ruby, but was concerned about using it on a machine with no Ruby installed. I've searched for examples of popular CLI's and found that Docker CLI is built with Go language. I'm able to use this CLI on my computer with no Go installed. How can one build a tool that will not require you to install Ruby?

My guess is that there's a build process involved and it might be compiled to something present on most systems, like shell or smth. Sorry if this is a lame guess/question!

Upvotes: 0

Views: 190

Answers (1)

Luca Fabbian
Luca Fabbian

Reputation: 215

(note: this is not a detailed answer, just a summary of how it works) Cli programs are just as other programs, there is nothing special about them.

Go is a compiled language - a program called "compiler" takes the go code and translate it directly to machine language, following the conventions imposed by an operative system. It becames pure 0 and 1, no references to anything else. The main advantage is that is self-contained, but you have to recompile it on every different architecture (32bit, arm processors, ...) and operating system (windows, linux, macos) - it's the operating system that take cares of redirecting input and output on cli.

Ruby, instead, is interpreted. There is a program called "Ruby interpreter" which translates your code to the appropriate machine code on the fly. It's a different approach, it's more "high level". The advantage is that you don't need to recompile the code. However, the "Ruby interpreter" itself must be written in some compiled language.

Upvotes: 1

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