From: Dennis Newbold <dennisn@...>
Date: 2002-03-20T06:20:28+09:00
Subject: Re: Development of Windows version of Ruby


On Wed, 20 Mar 2002, Marko Schulz wrote:

> On Wed, Mar 20, 2002 at 03:03:58AM +0900, Morris, Chris wrote:
> > 
> >   "how important is the lack of a True Fork"
> 
> I thought Microsoft provides a POSIX layer for Windows and fork is a
> part of POSIX. 
> 
> -- 
> marko schulz
> 

Well, its there in the architecture diagrams, but they never got around
to fully implementing the internals of it.  They now have a product called
Interix which is supposed to allow you to compile and run UNIX
applications under Windows.  It works by having a special DLL that fields
all the UNIX calls and does something Windows-ishly equivalent.  The
idea is kind of like cygwin except that:

   it is more tightly integrated into the rest of the Windows OS, and so
   works better and faster

   I think it runs on NT and Windows 2000, but I'm not sure about 95,
   ME, and 98.  Since it works on 2000, it should also work on XP as
   well.

   The kicker is that it costs about $100 which may put it out of the
   reach of many people.

   But, if anyone here has a corporate budget, and can talk your boss
   into paying for it,  I'm sure everyone on the list would be interested
   in hearing about how well it works for you.

   The website is at:

       http://www.microsoft.com/WINDOWS2000/interix/

   I just recently got a copy myself, and haven't messed with it much.
   If I can get it installed OK, I'll try building Ruby from the sources
   with it tonight, and see what happens.  Will try to report back to
   the list tomorrow.

Dennis