ANN: RubyInstaller - Release Candidate 2 - 1.8.6, 1.8.7 and 1.9.1 released

Ruby
1

I’m pleased to announce the second Release Candidate of the latest
RubyInstaller packages.

For those not already familiar with RubyInstaller, these versions
continue the great work started with the original One-Click Installers
by providing both 1.8 and 1.9 versions of MRI Ruby for Windows.

RubyInstaller now uses a different compilation tool than the legacy
One-Click Installers. As a result, when combined with our optional
Development Kit, it is now possible to install RubyGems that, until
today, were not readily or easily available to Windows users.

This release also focuses on improving the installation process and
ensuring a much more pleasant experience for existing and new users of
Ruby on Windows.

= Before installing

If you’re upgrading from previous RubyInstaller packages, please
uninstall these versions before proceeding. Don’t worry, any gems
that you installed or compiled since installed will not be removed.

Since the new RubyInstaller uses a different compiler, we highly advise
that you avoid attempting to install over any previous One-Click
Installer
installation, or any other variant versions (InstantRails, BitNami,
etc.)

We recommend that you backup your previous installation, take note of
the
details, your installed gem list, etc and proceed to completely
uninstall
any legacy installations.

= Getting the installers and the packages

As usual, we distribute the installer and binary packages on our
project page at RubyForge. Please download from RubyForge the
RubyInstaller
version that best suits your needs:

http://rubyforge.org/frs/?group_id=167&release_id=42563

The following are the MD5 signatures of each component:

Installers:

6819cda63d0f48c140f27f560825e2b8 *rubyinstaller-1.8.6-p398-rc2.exe
82ec7f599d3ef15b9f788e7421e865b7 *rubyinstaller-1.8.7-p249-rc2.exe
f3b6a780f1b2135961a45883ef702dcf *rubyinstaller-1.9.1-p378-rc2.exe

Binary Packages:

06ac64dc509cf1a914b3335031407136 *ruby-1.8.6-p398-i386-mingw32.7z
61c1497f8f9748d5da05f39455bcc269 *ruby-1.8.7-p249-i386-mingw32.7z
dd14e3f02505589f042f92f0487ae6a3 *ruby-1.9.1-p378-i386-mingw32.7z

CHM Help Files:

e474f74208373e89264a676cf7017a2e *ruby-1.8.6-p398-doc-chm.7z
968de52735c1710913518e0f5a0e87c2 *ruby-1.8.7-p249-doc-chm.7z
dfc6ac01f6df945ac0a3a0c2825fcee6 *ruby-1.9.1-p378-doc-chm.7z

Installers are meant for people with no previous or existing
installations.

Installers are tested and signed by me, Luis L., using a digital
certificate. The signed installers do not require administrative
privileges,
and can be installed by users with limited system privileges.

Packages are meant for advanced users who want to configure the
installation
to fit their needs. For example, installing multiple Ruby versions.

The CHM Help files provide access to both Core and Standard Library to
simplify search.

These files are already integrated in the installers, so the separate
downloads are for convenience purposes only

Packages and documentation has been compressed using 7-Zip compression
to achieve
smaller file sizes and download times.

Out of the box, Windows do not support extraction of these files, but
can be easily downloaded
from from it’s website: http://www.7-zip.org/

= What was improved or new in this version?

  • Installers now properly manage switches when doing silent
    installations
    (useful for automated deployment)

  • Installers now correctly restore file associations on installation and
    uninstall (issue found during rc1)

  • Provided upgraded versions of all stable branches of Ruby: 1.8.6,
    1.8.7 and
    1.9.1

  • No longer requires elevation of privileges with UAC enabled for
    administrators

  • Package newer 1.8.7 for future Ruby/Rails development as 1.8.6 for
    backwards
    compatibility.

= Why so many versions?

Due the extensive server-base that currently runs Ruby 1.8.6, support
and releases for
this version will continue be provided. It is recommended that for
newer projects you
start using either 1.8.7 or 1.9.1, whichever suit your needs.

= In case of problems, where should I go?

We recommend that you first check our FAQ at the Wiki:

http://wiki.github.com/oneclick/rubyinstaller/faq

And in case these resources do not answer your questions, please join
us at our Google Group:

http://groups.google.com/group/rubyinstaller

…where you will find friendly people to help you resolve your issues.

= Bug reports

We all know there is no bug free software, so we ask that you
communicate
your frustrations in a positive way and report any bugs you have found
so that we work on fixing them :slight_smile:

Please report bugs at RubyForge:

http://rubyforge.org/tracker/?atid=715&group_id=167&func=browse

For native C-based RubyGem compatibility, you can also read our Gem
List at the Wiki:

http://wiki.github.com/oneclick/rubyinstaller/gem-list

= Contributing

We always love when someone wants to contribute. We have a flexible
contribution policy: first patch merged gets you commit rights.

Feel free to read more about how you can contribute the project at the
wiki:

http://wiki.github.com/oneclick/rubyinstaller/how-to-contribute

= Thanks

Last, but certainly not least, would like to thank you the following
kind human
beings who made this release possible:

  • Alexey B.
  • Bosko I.
  • deepj
  • Gordon T.
  • Jon Maken
  • Park H.
  • Rodolfo Budeguer

And many others!