Re: Fwd: one click installer thoughts

On 10/18/07, Luis Lavena < luislavenagmail.com">luislavenagmail.com> wrote:

On 10/18/07, Curt Hibbs < curt.hibbsgmail.com">curt.hibbsgmail.com> wrote:
>;
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: Roger Pack < rogerpack2005gmail.com"> rogerpack2005gmail.com>
> Date: Oct 18, 2007 12:49 PM
> Subject: Re: one click installer thoughts
&gt; To: curthibbs.com">curthibbs.com
> Cc: RubyInstaller Developers
> < rubyinstaller-develrubyforge.org">rubyinstaller-develrubyforge.org >
>
> Oops looks like the fastest win32 compiler is
> ruby 1.8.6
>  ;(2007-03-13 patchlevel 0) [i386-mingw32] (gcc 4.2.1-dw2-2)
>
&gt;
> also cc'ed to devs--will probably bounce
> Take care.
>
>

Thanks Curt for the update.

The thing regarding gcc-4.2.1 is that is Technology Preview in MinGW.

What does mean?

The stable and inmediate candidates version of GCC under windows
(mingw) are 3.x, no plan for inmediate jump/mark as stable the 4.x
branch.

Since we are trying ot get a better product build under Windows, we
should avoid using too bleeding edge stuff.

Trying to trace a bug when you don't know if it's the compiler, ruby
or the steps you're doing.

Anyway, there is a performance compromise like always, and I lested
those in the ruby-core thread, but copy & paste here for the reference
(since cannot find the ruby-core number for it:P

Quote of what I replied to _why about the compilers and the options we
have for Windows:

====
So, to summarize we have a few paths:

- Keep using VC6 and find workarounds to compile extensions with other
compilers (maybe with better documentation for this topic).
Pro: we are already there.
Con: bad performance and issues with the compiler-

- Implement some sort of distutils for ruby
Pro: will be good for ruby at the end.
Con: will take time and much more to be integrated as part of ruby-core.

- Switch to VC8/9.
Pro:
- Better performance, compiler freely available (in the shape of
Visual Studio Express or Windows SDK).
- Known x64 support availability, for future developments/switch to
64bits OS -- (There is a Ruby 1.9 build against VC8_x64.)
Con:
- Requires hacking and fixing of upstream libraries (dependencies)
which aren't prepared for it.
(gnu tools like readline, iconv, gettext, and so on as example).

- Switch to MinGW
Pro: will ease the path of getting dependencies build (like the ones
cited before). It also link against already known runtime library
(msvcrt.dll) which is available in every stable OS since Windows 2000
-- AFAIK.
Con: This will also require maintain builds of upstream libraries,
even are more simpler to them build.
The support for x64 platforms is still under development -- is not
part of stable either candidates of current MinGW releases... which is
a problem (is another branch of project looking to get integrated).


Ok, these are the scenarios, and their good and bad points.

for those who every time just reply that "we should stick to MS
compilers" in the field I haven't found (excluding the 64bits part) no
differences from using MinGW. On the contrary, and thankfuly to the
"simple installer&quot; they have, get the correct dev environment is simpler than
Microsoft tools.

===

--
Luis Lavena
Multimedia systems
-
Leaders are made, they are not born. They are made by hard effort,
which is the price which all of us must pay to achieve any goal that
is worthwhile.
Vince Lombardi
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