Paul Moore wrote:
I don't know if Martin has already done this, but it needs doing. I'm not a distutils expert, but I am willing to look at it in the longer term.
I haven't changed any Python file at all in the process of compiling with VC 7.1. However, Python (since 2.3) indicates the compiler used to build it in sys.version; I believe this could be used as an indication to find out whether it was build with VC6 or VC7.1 (dunno whether it could also tell apart 7.0 and 7.1).
If there wasn't a Windows binary version for 2.4 produced, this would cause me problems.
Python 2.4 is still months ahead, I expect more copies of VC 7.1 being available by that time (unless Microsoft releases the next compiler version before that - but they are unlikely to do so until the very end of 2004).
At the very least, I'd suggest a warning post on c.l.p and c.l.p.announce, something to the effect of "Python 2.4 will be built with MSVC 7.1. Extension developers supplying binary distributions for Windows will need some way of building MSVC 7.1 compatible modules (MSVC 7.1 itself, or a recent version of the free Mingw compiler package) to continue providing binries."
I expect the word will spread quickly; again, there is plenty of time to prepare for that. Regards, Martin