[Distutils] Compiler abstractiom model

[David Ascher]

On Tue, 30 Mar 1999, Greg Ward wrote:

> Quoth David Ascher, on 29 March 1999:
> > On windows, it is sometimes needed to specify other files which aren't .c
> > files, but .def files (possibly all can be done with command line options,
> > but might as well build this in).  I don't know how these should fit in...
> 
> Are they just listed in the command line like .c files?  Or are they
> specified by a command-line option?  Would you use these in code that's
> meant to be portable to other platforms?

Yes, no, and yes. =)  

E.g. Python extensions need to declare the 'exported' entry point.  This
can be done either by modifying the source code (bad for portable code,
requires #ifdef's etc.), by specifying a command-line option, or by
including a .DEF file.

> But, as I said emphatically in my last post, those sorts of things must
> be supplied when Python itself is built.  I'm already allowing control
> over include directories and macros -- which are essential -- so I'm
> willing to throw in -g/-O stuff too.  But if we allow access to
> arbitrary compiler flags, you can kiss portability goodbye!

Not really -- you simply need to make the consequences of messing with
certain objects clear to the user, so that if s/he wants portable, s/he
does X, Y and Z, but if s/he wants to distribute the code to a specific
machine but with all the other machineries that distutils provides, then
s/he can do so.

IMHO, portable packaging will come by folks first using it to package
their non-portable code because it's easier than doing it the old way.

--david