Paul Moore wrote:
> On 02/02/07, Michael Foord <fuzzyman@voidspace.org.uk> wrote:
>> Paul Moore wrote:
>> But, IIUC there can still be issues with using gcc for extensions -
>> because you are still using a different CRT layer and this can cause
>> problems.
>
> Not true. When using mingw/gcc, distutils ensures that msvcr71.dll is
> used - the same CRT as Python. (I know, I was involved in implementing
> the change).
>
>> *If* distutils supported VC8 it would be as effective as using gcc. (?)
>
> My understanding is that VC8 only supports using msvcr80.dll, which is
> incompatible.
Oh right - so gcc supports you building against msvcr71.dll which VC8
specifically prevents.

Fair enough, I wasn't aware of this. I *have* heard reports of problems
for certain projects caused by extensions built with gcc on windows, but
they seemed like corner cases. (One was a database project which passed
file handles to the CRT - or something like that - IIRC.)

yes indeed I had a huge fight with mysqldb driver because of this. Since the windows version of mysql is compile with VS2003 and python too getting those drivers to build with gcc will require recompiling everything and making it incompatible with the stock mysql.

This is something that shock me a lot, why python (the official) on windows is build with a tool that is not accessible to all developers. Building extensions on windows is just a pain...

Fuzzyman

>
>
> Paul.
>

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