You can also grab the latest node.js Window's binaries (it bundles Cygwin runtime binaries too) and then always run the latest CoffeeScript.

Binaries are available here:

http://node-js.prcn.co.cc/

There's this question on Stack Overflow:

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3175561/coffeescript-on-w...

The link seems to be the favorite. I think the ruby option could be made to work better using current tools. Something like install JRuby, therubyrhino, and the coffee-script gem, put the compile command in the Rakefile, and run `jruby -S rake`.

Edit: there's a Maven plugin, too: https://github.com/jakewins/brew

Funny coincidence: Just an hour ago, I installed both Node.js and CoffeeScript on Windows using mingw:

https://github.com/joyent/node/wiki/Building-node.js-on-ming...

To use CoffeeScript with the mingw-built Node.js, just add "path-to-coffe-script/bin" to your mingw-bash $PATH (or the global path, but node.exe only works in mingw) and change

#!/bin/env node

to

#!your-nodejs-folder/node.exe

in "bin/coffee"

edit: Or just add the directory with "node.exe" to your path.

I can confirm it works. Very nice, trying to install node.js on cygwin is an exercise in frustration.

The cygwin Node install isn't so bad if you have a comprehensive list of prerequisite packages [1]. I also downloaded a script called `apt-cyg` that lets me download and install new cygwin packages from the command line rather than digging out setup.exe [2].

[1] https://github.com/joyent/node/wiki/Building-node.js-on-Cygw...

[2] http://code.google.com/p/apt-cyg/

agreed, it's not pleasant thats for sure

Haven't tried it yet but if it works, then that's great. Most of my work-related development is done on a Windows laptop and that has been a major hurdle in trying to adopt CoffeeScript. No more excuses now.

I made a python coffeescript converter/recursive directory watcher that also works on windows if anyone's interested.

https://github.com/danenania/CoffeePy