# Pre compiled gnu scientific library for win one-click-instal

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/pre-compiled-gnu-scientific-library-for-win-one-click-instal/94009>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [April 17, 2006, 11:05pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/pre-compiled-gnu-scientific-library-for-win-one-click-instal/94009 "2006-04-17T23:05:07Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![unknown](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/u/4bbf92/32.png) [@unknown](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/unknown)\
**Post date:** [April 17, 2006, 11:05pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/pre-compiled-gnu-scientific-library-for-win-one-click-instal/94009/1 "2006-04-17T23:05:07Z")

</div>

hi all-

after a but of hacking with msys and mingw i think i’ve compiled an easy  
to  
install version of the rb-gsl bindings. for those of you who don’t know  
what  
these are, the gnu scientific library (gsl) is by far the best  
collection of  
open source algorithms for scientific computing available. you can read  
about  
the gsl and ruby bindings to it here

[GNU Scientific Library — GSL 2.7 documentation](http://www.gnu.org/software/gsl/manual/html_node/)  
[http://rb-gsl.rubyforge.org/](http://rb-gsl.rubyforge.org/)

the installer also installs the amazing narray package, which integrates  
nicely with the gsl

[http://narray.rubyforge.org/index.html.en](http://narray.rubyforge.org/index.html.en)

this is the first thing i’ve compiled using the msys/mingw approach so  
i’m not  
100% certain that my approach – which i’ll be writing up on the sciruby  
wiki  
([http://sciruby.codeforpeople.com](http://sciruby.codeforpeople.com)) in a few days and which applies to  
compiling any posix package under windows in a way that’s one-click  
compatible  
– is the best one.

because of this please consider this pre-release experimental. the  
purpose of  
my releasing it now is to uncover any gotchas before writing up the  
process  
for others to follow.

here are the steps to install

- download this tar ball

- unpack using winzip, etc. if using winzip be aware that you need  
to tweak  
your options as the defaults will destroy valid tar balls. this is  
a  
‘feature’ of winzip.

- cd do the directory you just unpacked and run

that’s it.

you should now be able to run something like this from the dos prompt

> set RUBYOPT=

> c:\ruby\bin\ruby -r gsl -e’ p GSL::Rng.new.uniform ’

which print out a random numder. it’s important to unset the RUBYOPT  
environment variable as the gsl and rubygems have a naming conflict with  
the  
Rational class that i’ve not yet found a resolution too.

i’m in uncharted territory here so any and all comments are welcome.

enjoy.

-a