Just an FYI for the upcoming Python release, a very detailed post from Steve Dower, the Microsoft developer who is now in charge of the Windows releases for Python, on how the build process will change in 3.5 regarding extensions:
Fernando Perez (@fperez_org; http://fperez.org) fperez.net-at-gmail: mailing lists only (I ignore this when swamped!) fernando.perez-at-berkeley: contact me here for any direct mail