From: Michal Suchanek <hramrach@...>
Date: 2008-01-02T21:12:05+09:00
Subject: Re: Windows Ruby (was Re: Zed Shaw - Ruby has dodged a bullet)

On 02/01/2008, Thufir <hawat.thufir@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Wed, 02 Jan 2008 16:56:31 +0900, M. Edward (Ed) Borasky wrote:
>
>
> > Well, briefly -- in most cases, a Ruby extension written in C needs to
> > be compiled and "linked" (converted to a DLL)
>
>
> Completely off topic, but what's the equivalent for Linux?
>

It has to be compiled. For every architecture, every libc version, ...

It's jut more common for people running Linux to be set up for this
(or using a distribution that packages precompiled stuff for them).

On Windows it is assumed that software is proprietary and it either
just works or you trash it. So there is no infrastructure for dealing
with software for which the source is available in place.
Which means that the ruby community would have to provide binaries of
every library Ruby uses, every gem, for every libc version, for both
architectures MS supports, ... for this to work smoothly. But that's
too much work. The library authors only compile for the oldest most
widespread libc version, and since ruby uses these libraries the One
Click Installer does the same..

Thanks

Michal