[Distutils] Re: Python 2.3/mingw32

[Moore, Paul]

From: Paul Moore [mailto:pf_moore at yahoo.co.uk]
>> We added an extra sanity check that was intended to guard against someone
>> using a Python built with MSVC 6, say, and a DLL built with MSVC 7.  The
>> sanity check is that distutils finds out what compiler was used to build
>> Python, and won't compile extensions with anything else.  (I think I added
>> this code.)

> Er... I can build extensions quite happily with the mingw32 compiler,
> against a stock Python 2.3 for Windows.
[...]
> Don't "fix" this, please! It would be a real problem if users couldn't
> build C extensions with free tools, without having to build the whole
> Python interpreter as well.

Looks like (from other postings) that the check is in MSVCCompiler, and so
doesn't apply to mingw builds (the original problem seems to have been an
issue with the particular setup.py).

So it looks like everything's OK for now, otherwise. As I said, once a MSVC7
compiled Python is available for me to test with, I'll look at getting mingw
builds working appropriately. I guess I'll be able to steal the version test
from msvccompiler.py to help me set the appropriate compiler flags...

Cheers,
Paul.