From: ara.t.howard@...
Date: 2007-04-04T05:48:58+09:00
Subject: Re: Installing gem - C compiler issues (Win32)

On Wed, 4 Apr 2007, Konrad Garus wrote:

> Hello,
>
> I've wasted quite some time on it and ran out of ideas, so I'm going to
> ask here.
>
> I have Ruby installed by the One-Click Installer. That works great. Now,
> I need to install ferret. So I go to the command line and type "gem
> install ferret". That's where the hell begins.
>
> I have MinGW and VC8 (so-called 2005), and the installer seems to be
> using the latter. Initially I'm getting some errors caused by includes
> not being reachable, but that can be solved by copying them from VC to
> where the installer looks for them. After that, I get like 100 errors
> that basically look like compatibility issues...
>
> Is it possible to make gem (ruby? rake?) use MinGW? Is it possible to
> "manually" compile the C extensions with MinGW and then make gem use
> them? Finally, is it possible to make it work with VC8?
>
> (Ferret wiki says it needs VC6 which I don't have)
>
> Simply speaking - how to make it work?

1) compile ruby under mingw
2) compile ferret or any libs you need under mingw
3) install any gem using the mingw ruby
4) manually copy libs into one-click-installer space or, alternatively, bundle
it up as a pre-compile gem.

i've done exactly this for the gsl and narray packages here

   http://codeforpeople.com/lib/ruby/rb-gsl-win/rb-gsl-1.7.0/

in each case i solved #4 (getting from mingw compiled binaries into
one-click-installer space) by writing a tiny installer.  for example

   http://codeforpeople.com/lib/ruby/rb-gsl-win/rb-gsl-1.7.0/install.rb

which you'd run using the one-click-installer ruby

make sense?

-a
-- 
be kind whenever possible... it is always possible.
- the dalai lama