Ejabberd 0.9 Win32 Compiled/binary

"When can we expect to see a Windows binary installer of ejabberd v0.9 like the one that exists for ejabberd v0.7.5?"

This question, in various forms, appears to have been asked repeatedly, and in every case, there has been not one answer in reply. Even a "We're working on it" or "We would like to provide a Windows binary install, but the person who handled this is no longer available. Would someone like to pick up the slack?" would be better than silence.

Some ejabberd supporters are extremely vocal on the Jabber mailing lists, touting ejabberd as being very easy to install/use on Windows vs. say Jabberd or Jabberd2. Certain people in particular (you know who you are, Sander Devrieze :-)) tout ejabberd to the point of annoyance, replying on the mailing list every time someone asks for a Jabber/XMPP server recommendation, and especially when Windows is mentioned as the platform.

This kind of advocacy is a double-edged sword. It's great to have someone pitching ejabberd this wholeheartedly. It shows they really believe in the program, gives exposure to ejabberd, and gets more eyeballs on the software. But the fact ejabberd v0.9 was released on 18 April and there STILL is no Windows install makes ejabberd look no different than the other solutions. Emphasis is on source code release, which, like it or not, translates to "we prefer Linux" or similar branding by the majority of users of OSes like Windows and Mac OS X, where they are used to binary releases, typically packaged in nice installers (or in the case of OS X, simple .dmg files where you just drag the app to your Applications folder).

[I would get into the whole open-source vs. typical user mantra, but that would be a book in itself. Suffice it to say that I believe in open-source wholeheartedly as a development model, but I also believe the reality is that MOST users of software are NOT developers/coders and so do not have the skill/desire/interest to compile from source. In fact, whether we like it or not, most users don't really care about anything but having software that just works. While we can educate them about the importance of open-source, and we may one day get average users to see/agree/support this model, it will not change the fact that most still just want to get their software in pre-digested form and USE it. Computers for most folks are a means, not an end.]

If the intention is to push ejabberd as a truly cross-platform solution (and being built on Erlang seems to make that possible, assuming Erlang can be installed on the target platform) and to tout how well it runs on Windows, it is important to provide a Windows version in a timely manner.

Having installed the ejabberd 0.7.5 binary for Windows (kudos to the installer builder for checking for the dependencies of Erlang and OpenSSL!), I've been comparing what I find on my system with the build-from-source instructions I found here:

http://www.process-one.net/en/projects/ejabberd/docs/guide_en.html

and they don't jive. I was hoping to find that it's just a matter of following those steps, then trying to package up some kind of installer of the binaries.

However, I notice that while the instructions at the link above talk about copying both iconv.dll and libexpat.dll to the %SystemRoot%\System32 subdirectory, no such files are there from the binary installer. Did the person who created that installer do some tweaking? Are Expat 1.95.7 and Iconv 1.9.1 (optional) still used?

Basically, is someone working on a Windows binary installer package, and if not, is there any up-to-date documentation anywhere on either the steps involved in building/configuring the Windows binary from source (including creating the NT service) or, ideally, similar docs to show how to build the binaries and then create the installer? If the person who created the binary installer in the past is no longer available, has a replacement been asked for/found?

The silence to the basic question of when a Windows binary of ejabberd v0.9 is coming is deafening.