From: MikkelFJ <mikkelfj-anti-spam@...>
Date: 2002-10-25T20:44:38+09:00
Subject: Visual C++ controversy

Pardon me for this somewhat off-topic issue.

Because of the controversy of using the commercial Visual C++ compiler in
the Windows distribution of Ruby, the following information could prove
useful.
Disclaimer: I'm not trying to push the product - I'm just saying that for
people that do not have access to Visual C++, but want to develop Ruby
extensions on Windows, there may be an opening:

Microsoft Visual C++ .Net Standard Edition is being sold at a recommended
retail price at 109$, seen at Amazon UK priced at �86.
This version is for the hobby programmer and includes a non-optimizing
compiler with a really good debugger / IDE.
I've only worked with the professional edition, but I reckon the debugger /
IDE works the same.

I believe you can download the non-optimizing compiler with the .NET SDK,
but then you do not get the debugger (AFAIK), and the download is 100MB+.

If the generated code is too slow, you could always try using the gcc
compiler with mingw, this will also help ensure portability between Windows
/ *nix.

I'd like to know more about how well mingw integrates with the Visual C++
Ruby distribution. My guess is the only significant problem is the
extconf.rb setup, thus it would be nice to be able to choose a compiler
through a switch.
In any case, it is very useful to have the Visual C++ debugger.

Mikkel