[Python-Dev] Supporting non-Microsoft compilers

Greg Ward gward@mems-exchange.org
Tue, 23 May 2000 22:43:53 -0400


A couple of people are working on support in the Distutils for building
extensions on Windows with non-Microsoft compilers.  I think this is
crucial; I hate the idea of requiring people to either download a binary
or shell out megabucks (and support Chairman Bill's monopoly) just to
use some handy Python extension.  (OK, OK, more likely they'll go
without the extension, or go without Python.  But still...)

However, it seems like it would be nice if people could build Python
itself with (eg.) cygwin's gcc or Borland's compiler.  (It might be
essential to properly support building extensions with gcc.)  Has anyone
one anything towards that goal?  It appears that there is at least one
patch floating around that advises people to hack up their installed
config.h, and drop a libpython.a somewhere in the installation, in order
to compile extensions with cygwin gcc and/or mingw32.  This strikes me
as sub-optimal: can at least the required changes to config.h be made to
allow building Python with one of the Windows gcc ports?

I would be willing to hold my nose and struggle with cygwin for a little
while in Windows in dull moments at work -- had to reboot my Linux box
into Windows today in order to test try building CXX (since my VMware
trial license expired), so I might as well leave it there until it
crashes and play with cygwin.

        Greg
-- 
Greg Ward - software developer                gward@mems-exchange.org
MEMS Exchange / CNRI                           voice: +1-703-262-5376
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