Without being told to use a VM, installing Linux, buying a Mac, and without settling for the 2.0.0-p481 release of RubyInstaller; is there any way for a user to install this version of Ruby on Windows?
I don't mean to come off as an ass, but just curious.
Why do you want to develop ruby (or anything else) with windows? Especially since most servers (where ruby is popular) are linux servers? All colleagues I've had running windows always seem to have to jump so many hoops that the *nix crows don't.
Also, no unix shell and package managers, how do you deal with it?
I have used Ubuntu and Mac OS in the past, but I am currently favouring doing all of my work on Windows. All of the tools I need run perfectly fine on Windows (and many of them, not on Linux at all), and it would be a hindrance to switch to another operating system.
It is only Ruby which is difficult to keep up to date on Windows. My question was to try and find a solution.
I have tried using a VM (VirtualBox and VMWare), but it is not a desirable work flow. I currently use RubyInstaller.
I'm guessing that you'll probably have to build it yourself. Are you sure you want to use it, though? I haven't installed anything later than 1.9.3 32 bit on Windows since I discovered that that was the latest version that Nokogiri had pre-built binaries for, and using it with anything newer would require me to figure out how to build it against that version. It seems that anything newer than that may be a minefield of bugs on Windows.
But it is still my preferred language for scripting and automation on Windows.
Thanks for the response. Ruby is the only tool I currently use in development on Windows which I have flagged as a potential problem to maintain in the future. Thankfully, Ruby is a rather small part of my workflow, so waiting on RubyInstaller is fine at the moment.
My question was more of a concern for the future of my current dev setup. I was hoping someone on HN would know of a better solution to install Ruby on Windows manually, without having to wait on RubyInstaller.
Fortunately this release does include a Windows release. The home page doesn't yet include a news item for this round of releases, but 2.1.3 is available on the download page.
> Without being told to use a VM, installing Linux, buying a Mac, and without settling for the 2.0.0-p481 release of RubyInstaller; is there any way for a user to install this version of Ruby on Windows?
Yes, you can build from source.
OTOH, unless you want to develop windows-specific Ruby software (or work specifically on improving Ruby-on-windows), you are probably better off using a VM -- vagrant is your friend.
Personally I'd just hold out for awhile until the community updates everything. I personally am waiting for Brightbox to update their Ubuntu ppa packages before making the switch, as that's what all my production Ruby apps are running on.
I am not sure what the relevant tickets were, but I know that Luis wants to release, but some bugs in 2.1 were holding him back. Best ping @luislavena on Twitter.
I have never used Cygwin before. Thanks for referring me to it. I am currently trying to find the simplest solution for keeping Ruby up to date with the current releases, but having a hard time doing so on Windows. I will experiment with Cygwin at some point.
fdsary|11 years ago
Why do you want to develop ruby (or anything else) with windows? Especially since most servers (where ruby is popular) are linux servers? All colleagues I've had running windows always seem to have to jump so many hoops that the *nix crows don't.
Also, no unix shell and package managers, how do you deal with it?
irmbrady|11 years ago
It is only Ruby which is difficult to keep up to date on Windows. My question was to try and find a solution.
I have tried using a VM (VirtualBox and VMWare), but it is not a desirable work flow. I currently use RubyInstaller.
dragonwriter|11 years ago
There's shells for windows very similar to (some of which are ports of) unix shells, and chocolatey exists.
ufmace|11 years ago
But it is still my preferred language for scripting and automation on Windows.
bdcravens|11 years ago
Is the issue of using ssh/CLI the issue? If you plan to use Ruby professionally, you're gonna need those skills.
Additionally, some things like Redis, common to many Ruby apps, just won't run on Windows.
irmbrady|11 years ago
My question was more of a concern for the future of my current dev setup. I was hoping someone on HN would know of a better solution to install Ruby on Windows manually, without having to wait on RubyInstaller.
I will check out Vagrant as you suggested.
jtgeibel|11 years ago
http://rubyinstaller.org/downloads/
dragonwriter|11 years ago
Yes, you can build from source.
OTOH, unless you want to develop windows-specific Ruby software (or work specifically on improving Ruby-on-windows), you are probably better off using a VM -- vagrant is your friend.
vinceguidry|11 years ago
Argorak|11 years ago
(if possible, it's usually ~24 hours until the windows packages come in)
Argorak|11 years ago
AlexeyBrin|11 years ago
irmbrady|11 years ago