Just in time for your holiday hacking, the RubyInstaller for Windows
project [1] is pleased to announce its latest release of the DevKit [2]
providing MinGW GCC v4.5.1 capabilities for Ruby on Windows users.
The DevKit is a powerful compiler toolchain focused on making it easy to
use, build, and develop native RubyGems on Windows platforms. Since the
DevKit is used to build the MRI-based RubyInstaller and it’s required
native dependencies, it’s an integral component of the RubyInstaller
project. Many RubyInstaller users have also discovered the DevKit is a
useful toolchain for building other native projects on Windows.
While the DevKit will remain primarily a foundational build toolkit,
expandable to meet your unique needs, it will continue to be enhanced
for functional and ease-of-use reasons. Enhancements in this version
include:
- default toolchain is now TDM-based gcc/g++ v4.5.1
- enhanced installation and upgrade behavior
- easier 3rd party integration
- initial support for JRuby cext (C-extensions) [3], [4], [5]
- expanded core functionality (libtool, automake, mintty)
- modularized build recipes for building TDM, TDM 64-bit, and LLVM-GCC
Windows toolchains
…with the full list and usage instructions available at [6].
== QuickStart ==
After installing/upgrading [7] you may want to use a native RubyGem such
as RDiscount. Simply type “gem install rdiscount --platform=ruby” and
have at it.
Or you may want to build the latest EventMachine code from your cloned
repo. A “rake -rdevkit clobber compile” from your repo root dir should
get you going.
Or maybe you’re developing a native RubyGem and want to manually build
the native extension. Type “ruby -rdevkit extconf.rb” and you’ve got
your Makefile.
Or maybe you’d like to try building another native package from source.
Something like “c:\devkit\devkitvars.bat” (or “c:\devkit\devkitvars.ps1”
for you PowerShell users) will bring all the DevKit tools onto your
PATH, ready to help you build the code.
Or maybe you’d like to build [8] your own self-extracting DevKit, say an
LLVM-GCC v2.8 32-bit version. No problem. Simply clone the
RubyInstaller repo and…
C:>git clone git://github.com/oneclick/rubyinstaller.git
C:>cd rubyinstaller
C:\rubyinstaller>rake devkit sfx=1 dkver=llvm-32-2.8
However you decide to use the DevKit, we hope you find it makes your
Ruby on Windows experience a lot more rewarding and productive.
If after reading the documentation you run into problems or have
questions, drop by our helpful and friendly Google Group at
http://groups.google.com/group/rubyinstaller
Jon
[1] http://rubyinstaller.org/
[2] Downloads
[3] bithug.org - Productivity Blog
[4]
http://blog.headius.com/2010/07/what-jruby-c-extension-support-means-to.html
[5]
http://jonforums.github.com/ruby/2010/11/30/devkit-jruby-c-extensions.html
[6]
http://rubyinstaller.org/news/2010/12/15/new-devkit-for-the-holidays/
[7] Development Kit · oneclick/rubyinstaller Wiki · GitHub
[8]
https://github.com/oneclick/rubyinstaller/blob/master/README.txt#L97-122