The problem with sourceforge not finding those downloads is because I’ve based the old recipes in old versions of these components.

A new set of recipes, based on latest tools was created:

http://github.com/oneclick/rubyinstaller/blob/dsl/recipes/tools/msys.rake

This is part of the new DSL, which I’m updating to build both 1.8.6 and 1.9.1

The idea with suing the rubyinstaller repository is for other developers to hack and provide patches and help out getting Ruby working.

Sorry for making this a painful experience, but didn’t found the time to update the master recipes to match the new packages.

Thanks for your comments. If it appears that my intention was to critisize the work of RubyInstaller, I must apologize, for that certainly was not my intention. Infact, it did give me a very good starting point.

The whole idea is it’s not so trivial to get started with Merb on windows with ‘gem install merb’.

1. The trouble with the current config (inside config/ruby_installer.rb) is that ‘most of the MSYS files don’t get downloaded from the sourceforge because they are not available on sourceforge. (It might be so that I accidently selected wrong version of make than 3.79, but that again buttresses my point below.)

2. I didn’t have any troubles with runtime MSI, but with devkit MSI (this again perhaps got to do with #1 above)
I don’t think I am going to build ruby using visual studio express myself. I will look around if there is anything like that.

3. I fully agree RUBYOPT is not a problem of RubyInstaller.

4. Agreed

5. I had found a patch for bcrypt ruby somewhere (will have to dig it again)

The problem that I faced with MSYS was quite nasty (and it’s not so much an installer problem than it is sourceforge problem or rather a side-effect). One of the reasons why I thought it might not be a good idea to have mingw/msys downloaded and installed during the build process was that both these projects themselves are moving targets. Chasing them is an additional trouble, instead it might be a good idea to have a mingw/msys environment on the PC and then build and periodically see if the builds break with newer versions of MSYS/mingw.

Thanks for your responses again.

1. currently rubyinstaller repository (master branch) doesn’t use mingw32-make 3.81, but uses a older version instead.

2. Noone of the WiX packages where updated to either p287 or latest RubyGems.

3. RUBYOPT is an aberration. Latest One-Click installer make that optional, since is a real problem to many other developers. What version to you have installed?

4. To build any extension that requires dependency on externals (any DO adapter or either sqlite3-ruby, mysql, etc) You need development headers and libraries. That’s the rule, no matter what platform you’re using.

5. Indeed bcrypt-ruby needs patches for Windows, but that’s beyondt he scope of RubyInstaller Project.

6. Both DataMapper and Merb team are working in improve the Windows user experience of these gems, and all work is being done in the “next” branch for adapters like MySQL, SQLite3 and PostgreSQL.

In response to your points:

1. Good luck in that, you will find that will be a even worse experience build by hand, and will require you workaround many limitations of both MinGW and MSYS installation and setup.

2. You mean build ruby with Visual Studio Express? I’m saying this since RubyInstaller repository is prepared for MinGW.

Take in consideration all the CRT issues linking to a different version of MSVCRT will be related to your quest.

3. Right now most of DataMapper is working, except for these small pieces libe bcrypt which gem developers need to be contacted.

Hope this shed some light in your quest.

Regards.