>> 2) It allows mingw built binaries to interop with VC ones--binaries >> are much faster if built by gcc [1 #5]. > > That's an invalid comparison for a couple of reasons. ¨Βιςστ ωοχουμ> compare VC2008 versus gcc 4.3. ¨Βψγεπωογαξ§τ¬ βεγαυσηγ΄®ισ ξο> officially released for windows so you're stuck with gcc 3.4.5. Yeah I think the real comparison currently is VC2008 versus gcc 3.4.5 Here's a rough hack I did of it once [not a great comparison, but it shows gcc 3.4.5 being still faster than VC2008 http://groups.google.com/group/ruby-benchmark-suite/browse_thread/thread/b30155e85bb77bfe/07623f48138fcf64?lnk=gst&q=windows#07623f48138fcf64 ]. > Now, you do bring up an interesting point, which is instead of favoring a > compiler favor a runtime library (msvcr90 being the obvious choice). ¨Β> other words, VC2008 will always link against that one and you can mingw to > link against it also. ¨Βθε δοχξσιδε ισ τθατ ωοεψγμυδΦΓ²°°³ ος τθ> upcoming VC2010. True it might be worthwhile to "bless" a runtime. Theoretically this could work with other compilers, as well, than its default. I've seen blog posts of people making VC2005 link against msvcrt.dll [i.e. VC6] and also, apparently you can link mingw against other versions of msvcrt.dll [1]. >> Another option would be to release a mingw only OCI linked against >> msvcr90.dll, then instruct extension developers on how to release >> binaries that "pretend" to be mingw though they're only "mingw >> compatible." > > There is no pretending here. ¨Βθοσε χουμβε νιξηβιξαςιεσ μιξλεδ αηαιξσ> msvcr90.dll. ¨Βθαισ συπποςτεδ® ¨Β θαφε ξο ιδεα ιζ ιτ χοςλγςοσσγονπιμιξ> though. I was just thinking that if desired, the current naming scheme could be used and still fit. Kind of :) >> Or perhaps rubygems could be patched to recognize compatible binaries. > > Not sure what you mean. ¨Βηοαμ ισ τθατ αξ εψτεξσιοδεφεμοπεοξμω θα ¨Β> release 1 binary for windows per ruby version. For that one I was meaning rubygems could perhaps note "oh you're on mingw, well I have a mswin32 binary that you can use even though it's not your compiler" and install it appropriately. Some change needs to happen, not sure though. Thanks! -=r [1] http://www.develer.com/oss/GccWinBinaries at the bottom.