Problem with installing linecache on Windows XP

I’ve been trying to move a Rails 2.3.8 app from OXS to Windows XP for
demonstration purposes. I’m having a problem with some of the gems;
linecache is one.
When I try to install the linecache gem, I get the following:

gem install linecache
Building native extensions. This could take a while…
ERROR: Error installing linecache:
ERROR: Failed to build gem native extension.

C:/Ruby187/bin/ruby.exe extconf.rb
creating Makefile

make
‘make’ is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.

Gem files will remain installed in C:/Ruby187/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/
linecache-0
.43 for inspection.
Results logged to C:/Ruby187/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/linecache-0.43/ext/
gem_make.
out

Gem environment is:

gem environment
RubyGems Environment:

  • RUBYGEMS VERSION: 1.3.7
  • RUBY VERSION: 1.8.7 (2010-08-16 patchlevel 302) [i386-mingw32]
  • INSTALLATION DIRECTORY: C:/Ruby187/lib/ruby/gems/1.8
  • RUBY EXECUTABLE: C:/Ruby187/bin/ruby.exe
  • EXECUTABLE DIRECTORY: C:/Ruby187/bin
  • RUBYGEMS PLATFORMS:
    • ruby
    • x86-mingw32
  • GEM PATHS:
    • C:/Ruby187/lib/ruby/gems/1.8
    • C:/Documents and Settings/fencore/.gem/ruby/1.8
  • GEM CONFIGURATION:
  • REMOTE SOURCES:

I notice that the platform for the gem is ms-win32, which is
presumably why it fails. This is an issue because I have to prepare
some laptops for a client who wants to develop on windows boxes, so
I’d like to understand what is going on here. I’d also point out that
the same thing happems with ruby-debug; I haven’t gone through the
whole list of gems that I need yet.

I can force an install with --platform ms-win32 but that seems a
dubious approach to take.

Does anybody have a work-around for this problem?