How to install rdiscount ruby gem in windows vista?

Question

I have vista and trying to install ruby gem - 'rdiscount' and get following error...what's the answer for this?

$ gem install rdiscount Building native extensions. This could take a while... ERROR: Error installing rdiscount: ERROR: Failed to build gem native extension.

c:/Ruby/bin/ruby.exe extconf.rb checking for random()... no checking for srandom()... no creating Makefile

nmake 'nmake' is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file.

Gem files will remain installed in c:/Ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rdiscount-1.5.5 for inspection. Results logged to c:/Ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rdiscount-1.5.5/ext/gem_make.out

Answer 1

RDiscount will not be an easy port for Windows. It uses a POSIX function that is not available under Windows, even if you adjusted most of it.

I would recommend usage of BlueCloth, latest version, also in combination with newer RubyInstaller version of Ruby, which uses GCC and can compile gems that require it.

I've mentioned this issue on the RubyInstaller group before.

Please grab the newer installer from rubyinstaller.org and the DevKit too

Follow the instructions for installation from the wiki page (Development Kit)

Hope that helps, cannot put links to the references.

Answer 2

RubyInstaller's DevKit can now install rdiscount:

Below are instructions for installing DevKit and using it to install rdiscount:

https://github.com/oneclick/rubyinstaller/wiki/development-kit