From: Bill Kelly <billk@...>
Date: 2010-01-18T16:20:32+09:00
Subject: Re: Can't install gems (Windows)

Alpha Blue wrote:
> If you are hell bent on developing with windows, then go to the 1.8.6 
> one-click installer, or move to netbeans 6.8 and jruby.  You can't use 
> Ruby EE (enterprise edition) on a windows environment so that's not a 
> good option.  While you could go with a 1.8.7 setup, you are probably 
> going to run into similar compiler issues, especially with windows 7. 
> And, if you are trying to use 64-bit, this is a whole other headache in 
> itself.

Hopefully not to confuse the issue, but depending on one's requirements
there are significant benefits from using 1.9.x or 1.9.2 on windows.

1.9.x provides, for the first time in FOREVER on windows ruby, a popen()
that only blocks its own thread, rather than the whole process.

And 1.9.2 provides Unicode path support on windows.  (Last I checked,
Unicode path support was only partially implemented so far in 1.9.2,
but they're working on it.)

Both a non-process-blocking popen() and Unicode path support are critical
to my current application, so 1.9.2 is a must for me on Windows.

Thankfully, so far I've found it relatively simple to build ruby from
the command line using the Microsoft compiler.  (Haven't tried the MinGW
route, but I presume it's at least as well-behaved.)


Regards,

Bill