# Build for Windows Mobile Failed **URL:** \ **Category:** Ruby\ **Created:** [March 14, 2006, 7:03pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/build-for-windows-mobile-failed/54836 "2006-03-14T19:03:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Daniel\_VSSSSlkerts](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/d26b3c/32.png) [@Daniel\_VSSSSlkerts](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Daniel_VSSSSlkerts)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2006, 7:03pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/build-for-windows-mobile-failed/54836/1 "2006-03-14T19:03:35Z")
Dear Readers, I searched the ruby-talk archives and googled but both left me alone. After I read the README.wince documentation for the build process I installed all the required files. My setup is: - Windows Embedded Visual C++ 4.0 SP4 - DELL Axim X51 ARMV5T XScale CPU - Windows Mobile 5.0 The following batch set the env variables and provide me a command line for the build process. –\>8— set INCLUDE=F:\Programme\Windows CE Tools\wce400\STANDARDSDK\Include\Armv4t set LIB=F:\Programme\Windows CE Tools\wce400\STANDARDSDK\Lib\Armv4t set CE\_TOOLS\_DIR=F:\Programme\Windows CE Tools\wce400 set EMBEDDED\_TOOLS\_DIR=C:\Programme\Microsoft eMbedded C++ 4.0\EVC\WCE400\BIN set PATH=%PATH%;%EMBEDDED\_TOOLS\_DIR%;%CE\_TOOLS\_DIR%;C:\Programme\Microsoft eMbedded C++ 4.0\Common\EVC\Bin ## start /D F:\ cmd.exe I successfully ran configure.bat (without an architecture type as parameter for two reasons: first I don’t habe any idea how to look up the target string for my pda like ‘arm-hpc-wince’, second this parameter seems to be optional) I ran nmake and he complaint following: —\>8------- F:\ruby-1.8.4\wince\>configure.bat Creating Makefile type `NMAKE’ to make ruby for mswince. F:\ruby-1.8.4\wince\>nmake Microsoft ® Program Maintenance Utility Version 6.00.8168.0 Copyright © Microsoft Corp 1988-1998. All rights reserved. ## Creating fake.rb Creating config.h config.h updated. Creating config.status rbconfig.rb updated cl -nologo -Zi -w -O2b2xg- -G6 -DRUBY\_EXPORT -I. -I./… -I./…/missing -I./…/wince -I. -I./ … -I./…/missing -I./…/wince -DUNDER\_CE -D\_WIN32\_WCE= -DFILENAME\_MAX=MAX\_PATH -DTLS\_OUT\_OF\_INDE XES=0xFFFFFFFF -DBUFSIZ=512 -D\_UNICODE -DUNICODE -c -Tc./…/array.c array.c .\config.h(92) : fatal error C1017: invalid integer constant expression NMAKE : fatal error U1077: ‘cl’ : return code ‘0x2’ Stop. It seems that he stops as the -D variable \_WIN32\_WCE= is empty. Okay. Opened the makefile in my editor and look up the line. -----\>8------- PROCESSOR\_ARCHITECTURE = x86 PROCESSOR\_LEVEL = 6 # RUBY\_SO\_NAME = $(RT)-$(RUBY\_INSTALL\_NAME)$(MAJOR)$(MINOR) # CFLAGS = -nologo $(DEBUGFLAGS) $(OPTFLAGS) $(PROCESSOR\_FLAG) ## CPPFLAGS = -I. -I$(srcdir) -I$(srcdir)/missing -I$(srcdir)/wince $(CECPUDEF) -DUNDER\_CE -D\_WIN32\_WCE=$(SUBSYSVERSION:.=) -DFILENAME\_MAX=MAX\_PATH -DTLS\_OUT\_OF\_INDEXES=0xFFFFFFFF -DBUFSIZ=512 -D\_UNICODE -DUNICODE $(QSH4) How does he resolve the SUBSYSVERSION? It shouldn’t be empty (I guess). Sorry for the long post, but I hope to demonstrate that I try to figure out the problem. TIA, ---
**Author:** ![Daniel\_VSSSSlkerts](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/d26b3c/32.png) [@Daniel\_VSSSSlkerts](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Daniel_VSSSSlkerts)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2006, 10:16pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/build-for-windows-mobile-failed/54836/2 "2006-03-14T22:16:13Z")
Daniel Völkerts wrote: > I searched the ruby-talk archives and googled but both left me alone. > > After I read the README.wince documentation for the build process I > installed all the required files. Join the club. I have tried building a WinCE version against Ruby versions 1.6.8 through 1.8.4 with no luck. I wound up installing a binary version I found on this website → [ruby-mswince](http://uema2.s8.xrea.com/ruby-mswince/). It seemed to work up to a certain point but then the Ruby interpreter would error out trying to parse the scripts it was given as a command line argument.The string module must be incompatible between the Ruby binary version and my WinCE platform (in this case a Dell Axim x50 running Windows Mobile 5.0). Since I had to port my client app to this platform I rewrote the whole thing in Python. Not fun but it was the best tool for the job. ---
**Author:** ![Daniel\_VSSSSlkerts](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/d26b3c/32.png) [@Daniel\_VSSSSlkerts](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Daniel_VSSSSlkerts)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2006, 4:20am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/build-for-windows-mobile-failed/54836/3 "2006-03-15T04:20:43Z")
Daniel Völkerts wrote: > Thanks. I googled your tries. It is a bit frustrating as this option is > provided by the sources, so my guess was that anybody is mainting this. > So I thought their might be someone who knows what is going on. It’s a > pitty that ruby loses ground on that sector ☹ > > I’ll try one and report a success. As for the sources, from what I’ve read there was a version of Ruby called PocketRuby that was compiled for Windows CE devices. But this version hasn’t been officially supported for awhile AFAIK, although the wince build directory is still there. The only guess I have is that the MSVC build process fails but perhaps the Cygwin route might produce better results. I frankly didn’t have the time to try every option and combination of compilers and gave up. Hopefully you have better luck. Please provide an update if anything comes about… ---
**Author:** ![Daniel\_VSSSSlkerts](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/d26b3c/32.png) [@Daniel\_VSSSSlkerts](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Daniel_VSSSSlkerts)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2006, 12:06am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/build-for-windows-mobile-failed/54836/4 "2006-03-15T00:06:52Z")
gregarican schrieb: > Join the club. I have tried building a WinCE version against Ruby > versions 1.6.8 through 1.8.4 with no luck. I wound up installing a > binary version I found on this website → > [ruby-mswince](http://uema2.s8.xrea.com/ruby-mswince/). It seemed to work up to a > certain point but then the Ruby interpreter would error out trying to > parse the scripts it was given as a command line argument.The string > module must be incompatible between the Ruby binary version and my > WinCE platform (in this case a Dell Axim x50 running Windows Mobile > 5.0). Since I had to port my client app to this platform I rewrote the > whole thing in Python. Not fun but it was the best tool for the job. Thanks. I googled your tries. It is a bit frustrating as this option is provided by the sources, so my guess was that anybody is mainting this. So I thought their might be someone who knows what is going on. It’s a pitty that ruby loses ground on that sector ☹ I’ll try one and report a success. TIA, ---
**Author:** ![Daniel\_VSSSSlkerts](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/d26b3c/32.png) [@Daniel\_VSSSSlkerts](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Daniel_VSSSSlkerts)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2006, 9:05am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/build-for-windows-mobile-failed/54836/5 "2006-03-15T09:05:22Z")
gregarican schrieb: > As for the sources, from what I’ve read there was a version of Ruby > called PocketRuby that was compiled for Windows CE devices. But this > version hasn’t been officially supported for awhile AFAIK, although the > wince build directory is still there. The only guess I have is that the > MSVC build process fails but perhaps the Cygwin route might produce > better results. I frankly didn’t have the time to try every option and > combination of compilers and gave up. Hopefully you have better luck. > Please provide an update if anything comes about… First I’ll give the CVS version a try. If this fails I use the cygwin / linux build environment. I read about Mozilla Minimo to use Linux as a build environment for Pocket PC. So there is more experience on this I hope. Greetings, ---
**Author:** ![Daniel\_VSSSSlkerts](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/d26b3c/32.png) [@Daniel\_VSSSSlkerts](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Daniel_VSSSSlkerts)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2006, 9:17am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/build-for-windows-mobile-failed/54836/6 "2006-03-15T09:17:30Z")
Oh it is going on. By your hint, I searched for PocketRuby and patch and found an thread on ruby-dev. Great I thought. Unfortunatly the thread is in japanese? I can spanish, french, english, german and Java™ _g_. A automatic translation failed. Any help is appreciated. g, ---
**Author:** ![Daniel\_VSSSSlkerts](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/d26b3c/32.png) [@Daniel\_VSSSSlkerts](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Daniel_VSSSSlkerts)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2006, 2:56pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/build-for-windows-mobile-failed/54836/7 "2006-03-15T14:56:40Z")
Daniel Völkerts wrote: > Oh it is going on. By your hint, I searched for PocketRuby and patch and > found an thread on ruby-dev. Great I thought. Unfortunatly the thread is > in japanese? > > I can spanish, french, english, german and Java™ _g_. A automatic > translation failed. Any help is appreciated. I would try Babelfish, although the translations that I try for Japanese-\>English tend to make things sound a little silly. But at least it gives me some hints as to what is going on. Frankly this is still the one aspect of Ruby that leaves it lacking for me as a production solution for some areas in my company. After over a year of trying I have still found it isn’t totally friendly toward Win32/MSVC and seems biased toward Linux/GCC. And trying to rig my own solution is tough because key documentation can be Japanese only in certain situations I have run into (e.g. - PocketRuby, DL). I love Ruby’s syntax, intuitiveness, mindset, and elegance. It makes sense to me more than any other language. And perhaps that’s what frustrates me the most, since I have to resort to other (less preferred) languages for certain tasks. I’d rather be doing it in Ruby. Not to troll, but if Python is a more prominent language compared to Ruby I would bet in part it’s because it’s more Windows-friendly. Sure it’s been around longer and had more libraries and extensions built for it. But if Windows clients make up the vast majority of OS market share it’s certainly easier to deploy solutions that don’t involve digging deep under the hood to compile things 🙂