[ruby-talk:04008] Ruby installation instructions for Windows

I had to write these instructions for my friends. I thought it might be nice
to share them, so others can have help to use Ruby on Windows too. Please
don't hesitate to correct mistakes.

#####

You've at least two versions to choose from:
- rbdj: ruby compiled to be stand alone with DJ Delorie tools
- rbcw: ruby compiled to use cygwin libraries

If you don't have to do any real work with your computer, except coding with
Ruby ;), I recommend installing rbdj-version. If you wan't to develop on
your Windows machine as it would be quite much like Unix (recommended way),
take rbcw-version.

Load newest version of the binary distribution from
ftp://ftp.netlab.co.jp/pub/lang/ruby/pc/ (you can see the mirror list from
http://www.ruby-lang.org/en/download.html):

At the writing moment this means:
ftp://ftp.netlab.co.jp/pub/lang/ruby/pc/rbdj145.zip  or
ftp://ftp.netlab.co.jp/pub/lang/ruby/pc/rbcw145.zip 

Now instructions for specific version:
*** rbdj145.zip
1) unzip
2) use

*** rbcw145.zip
1) load cygwin tools from appropriate cygwin mirror:
   http://sources.redhat.com/cygwin/mirrors.html
   For me the nearest mirror was sunet.se 
   (ftp://ftp.sunet.se/pub/lang/cygwin/) and the exact location 
   for the package location 
   ftp://ftp.sunet.se/pub/lang/cygwin/latest/cygwin/cygwin-1.1.2.tar.gz

2) unzip both packages
     If you don't know how to unzip .tar.gz files:
     - use Winzip or similar product capable of handling .tar.gz 
       packages or 
     - use cygwin. This option seem to be contradictory 
       because to install cygwin you need cygwin :). 
       That's not so, there's a setup.exe capable to extract and 
       install things, I just haven't tested it. The url might be
       ftp://ftp.sunet.se/pub/lang/cygwin/latest/setup.exe or 
       similarly in other mirrors.

3) Copy cygwin1.dll to your system32. It's under 
   the_path_where_you_extracted_cygwin\usr\bin


For convenience in either case you might want 
  1) to set environment variable RUBYLIB to point to right 
     directory (wherever you unzipped your ruby) for me I've to add
     RUBYLIB="C:\temp\softa\ruby\rbdj145\lib"
  2) you can check your ruby really finds it's libraries by saying
       cd \
       ruby -e'puts $:'
     and of the directories it prints should be pointing to directory
     lib under the directory where you unzipped rbdj
  3) if the earlier step failed because your command prompt was not 
     able to find ruby.exe, you might want to make it visible by putting
     the directory where you unzipped ruby into the path.
     Or by copying the ruby.exe (and everything what it needs) to some 
     directory on the path.
     Or by creating a ruby.bat into some directory printed when saying
       set path
     The content of the bat could be
       c:\temp\softa\ruby\rbdj144\ruby %1 %2 %3 %4 %5 %6 %7 %8 %9

That's that. I just want to remind that it's not bad thing to read all the
docs you happen to have access to. Especially README.* in Ruby case and
everything at http://sources.redhat.com/cygwin/docs.html . Happy hacking.

	- Aleksi