[Numpy-discussion] Moving to gcc 4.* for win32 installers ?

[josef.pktd at gmail.com]

On Thu, Oct 27, 2011 at 9:02 AM, David Cournapeau <cournape at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I was wondering if we could finally move to a more recent version of
> compilers for official win32 installers. This would of course concern
> the next release cycle, not the ones where beta/rc are already in
> progress.
>
> Basically, the pros:
>  - we will have to move at some point
>  - gcc 4.* seem less buggy, especially C++ and fortran.
>  - no need to maintain msvcr90 vodoo
> The cons:
>  - it will most likely break the ABI
>  - we need to recompile atlas (but I can take care of it)
>  - the biggest: it is difficult to combine gfortran with visual
> studio (more exactly you cannot link gfortran runtime to a visual
> studio executable). The only solution I could think of would be to
> recompile the gfortran runtime with Visual Studio, which for some
> reason does not sound very appealing :)

What does the last mean in practice? (definition of linking in this case?)
If numpy and scipy are compiled with MingW gcc 4.*, then it cannot be
used with the standard python?
Or does it just mean we cannot combine fortran extensions that are
build with MingW with extension build with visual studio?

another example: would Matplotlib compiled against visual studio work
with a new MingW compiled numpy? I guess that's what the ABI break
would prevent?

Since we will have to update MingW sooner or later anyway, I'm in
favor of doing it. And given the comments on the mailing list about
the Linux transition to gfortran, I expect that the transition will
take some time.

Thanks for your successful effort that installation on Windows was
without problems for years for a user like me.

Josef

>
> Thoughts ?
>
> cheers,
>
> David
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