From: Robert McGovern Date: 2004-04-21T22:05:34+09:00 Subject: Re: Free VC++ Compiler >>> JRoshan@blr.cognizant.com 04/21/04 01:21pm >>> > //True but it does address one thing that was missing from the > //previous release of their c++ compiler, namely optimizations. > //The thing to do is take the best of both worlds and combine > //the two installs (the previous Microsoft SDK & the c++ > //toolkit). What I have tried so far works well and compiles > //Ruby without any problems. > > Correct me if I am wrong, as I dont know the history of this thread - > but the c++ compiler itself was freely avaiable. Even now if you think > you have a problem with having a compiler that doesn't do certain > optimisations simply take the compiler that is available with the .Net > Framework SDK distributions. > > That does everything and can also handle Managed C++. Yes it was previously freely available as part of the .Net SDK, but it wasn't the quite the version available in the Professional release or Visual Studio. From what I remember from when I installed the Microsoft SDK (http://www.microsoft.com/msdownload/platformsdk/sdkupdate/) and the .Net SDK (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=9B3A2CA6-3647-4070-9F41-A333C6B9181D&displaylang=en) is that after moving a few files around (namely nmake from %install path&\Microsoft SDK\bin\Win64) you could configure and compile Ruby from the command line. However as each file was compiled it would complain, if memory serves, that -O2 from the OPTFLAGS used (-O2b2xg-) was not recognized. That complaint is no longer issued when using the compiler that is in the VC++2003Toolkit.