# Beta testers for faster win32 distro wanted **URL:** \ **Category:** Ruby\ **Created:** [November 6, 2007, 5:14pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/beta-testers-for-faster-win32-distro-wanted/119387 "2007-11-06T17:14:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![rogerdpack](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rogerdpack](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/rogerdpack)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2007, 5:14pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/beta-testers-for-faster-win32-distro-wanted/119387/1 "2007-11-06T17:14:58Z")
After using the latest mingw for windows compilation, it seems reasonably stable, and yes faster. If anybody would like to try it out instructions are at [http://www.doachristianturndaily.info/ruby\_distro](http://www.doachristianturndaily.info/ruby_distro) Cheers! -Roger ---
**Author:** ![rogerdpack](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rogerdpack](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/rogerdpack)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2007, 6:55am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/beta-testers-for-faster-win32-distro-wanted/119387/2 "2007-11-07T06:55:53Z")
On Nov 6, 11:15 am, Roger P. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > After using the latest mingw for windows compilation, it seems > reasonably stable, and yes faster. > If anybody would like to try it out instructions are athttp://www.doachristianturndaily.info/ruby\_distro > > ## Cheers! -Roger > > Posted viahttp://www.ruby-forum.com/. Is it your intent to become a official/unofficial distributor of ming\_win32 distro? Or is it a one-time deal? you say that that it seems faster … wish full thinking or actual benchmarking? What about ruby 1.9.1? ---
**Author:** ![rogerdpack](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rogerdpack](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/rogerdpack)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2007, 7:15am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/beta-testers-for-faster-win32-distro-wanted/119387/3 "2007-11-07T07:15:45Z")
> Is it your intent to become a official/unofficial distributor of > ming\_win32 distro? > Or is it a one-time deal? I plan on continuing to use it for personal use (as long as it’s faster, I’m gonna use it myself, and offer it as an unofficial distro). I also am in touch with the OCI guys and they may adopt it and/or offer it as a branch off main. In terms of ‘will it be supported’ thankfully (you’ll think this is a cop out but)–the extensions compiled with VC6 and mingw are binary compatible, so in reality you could just drop the mingw ruby.exe+ruby18.dll over the existing ones, rename your i386-win32 folder i386-mingw and it would work, (I think–these things get a little complicated at times). So…it’s about the same. The OCI guys haven’t decided if they’re going in the direction of VC8 or mingw. This is the mingw branch. > you say that that it seems faster … wish full thinking or actual > benchmarking? It is typically just as fast (I/O bound) or up to 1/3 faster or more (CPU bound). Here’s one I’ll do to demo old one (VC6) /cygdrive/c/old\_ruby\_msvc/bin/ruby -e “1000.times {‘a’\*20000}” real 0m1.468s new one (mingw) ruby -e “1000.times {‘a’\*20000}” real 0m0.543s (consistently gets these speeds). From my own experience of developing rails apps on it, it feels faster. In all honesty, rails finally feels like it WORKS with the mingw build, unlike feeling broken the old way–in terms of slugishness. Some unofficial speed comparisons are also given here [Parked at Loopia](http://pastie.caboo.se/pastes/95210) > What about ruby 1.9.1? I’d imagine it would compile fine with mingw but haven’t taken the chance to do so and compare, as I don’t use it. There are probably a few bugs still which I’m enlisting help to hunt down. (like -e is broken if you have quotes within quotes), but I have been using it for two weeks with minimal probs and nicer speed. Once they’re ironed out it should be a real distro (albeit not one click). I believe for example it is still lacking “readline.dll” in the bin directory, but we’re getting there. -Roger ---
**Author:** ![rogerdpack](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rogerdpack](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/rogerdpack)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2007, 9:18am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/beta-testers-for-faster-win32-distro-wanted/119387/4 "2007-11-07T09:18:42Z")
Roger P. wrote: > > What about ruby 1.9.1? > > I use WinGW/MSYS for compiling the daily snaphots of Ruby 1.9 without > > any problem on Windows2000/XP. Several things are not yet production > > ready, but Ruby 1.9.1 is not finished. I’m fighting in the moment for a > > somehow working iconv, but all these details will hopefully be there by > > end of december (2007 😉 ). Wolfgang Nádasi-Donner