[Python-3000] Python 3.0a2 release

[Paul Moore]

On 20/11/2007, Christian Heimes <lists at cheimes.de> wrote:
> Are we going to drop VS 2003 after the 3.0a2 release and use VS 2008 as
> the default compiler once it has been released, too?
>
> In other words: Do we want to support outdated compilers for legacy
> reasons or can we stick to 2005 as the minimum version? The directory
> and registry layouts of 8.0 and 9.0 are almost identical. My
> modifications may work for both compilers.

One key question which will need to be addressed - at the moment, it
is possible to build Python extensions with mingw, and I believe a lot
of people do this (I certainly do!) If we move to VS 2005 or VS 2008,
then this may not be possible (there is specific mingw support for the
msvcr71 CRT DLL, both in distutils, and in mingw). As things currently
stand, mingw doesn't seem to ship with even msvcr80 libraries.

If allowing non-core developers to build Windows binaries without
needing a paid-for compiler is important, then it will be necessary to
make sure that building extensions works with the free versions of VS
(preferably without the huge pain of "install VS express, install SDK,
grab the following extra bits, etc etc" that seems to be the case now
- at the very least, clear and supported instructions on what needs to
be installed should be included).

I would strongly advise against going back to the days where a paid MS
compiler was the only way to build extensions for Windows.

I will help in addressing this issue, but I am limited in my ability
to do so, as I cannot build Python itself (that *does* need full VS
2005/2008, as I understand it) and so all I have to go with is the
snapshot builds (which use VS 2003, and so don't help...)

Paul.

PS To be honest, I'd like to see Python itself buildable with the free
MS tools, but I don't have time to work on that and so that's more of
a dream than a reasonable request to make :-)