From: Daniel Berger <djberge@...>
Date: 2003-02-13T06:02:05+09:00
Subject: Re: Windows support

Daniel Carrera wrote:

> Hello,
>
> Suppose I write a Ruby module with some C code in it.  This is no problem
> under Unix, Linux and Mac, but it makes things harder under Windows.  What
> is the best way to support Windows?

Buy  VC++ 6.0 or later.  Share .so files for folks who don't have (or can't
afford) VC++.

> On a related note:
>
> 1) Does Microsoft's Visual C++ provide a 'make' program?

Yes, it's called nmake, and you can get it for free off the internet.  It
also comes with VC++.

>
> 2) Does Cygwin or MinGW provide a 'make' and gcc that can be used like the
> Linux ones?

If you build a windows app using cygwin, any machines that you want to run
your code on will also require cygwin.  It's not an ideal solution.

>
> 3) What other C compilers should I support?

You shouldn't need to worry about supporting specific compilers.  Your C code
should compile irregardless of compiler, although I wouldn't use anything
other than VC++ for Windows, and gcc for *nix.  The only other compiler
you'll generally hear of people using is Sun's C compiler, but it ain't free.

Hope that helps.

Regards,

Dan

--
a = [74, 117, 115, 116, 32, 65, 110, 111, 116, 104, 101, 114, 32, 82, 117, 98]
a.push(121, 32, 72, 97, 99, 107, 101, 114)
puts a.pack("C*")