[Python-Dev] MS VC 7 offer

[logistix]

On Tue, 6 May 2003, Guido van Rossum wrote:

> A month ago at Python UK in Oxford (which was colocated with C and C++
> standardization meetings as well as a general C and C++ users
> conference) I met with some folks from Microsoft's VC development
> team, including the project lead, Nick Hodapp.  I told Nick that
> Python for Windows was still built using VC 6.  He pointed out that
> the actual compilers (not the GUI) from VC 7 are freely downloadable.
> 
> More recently, Nick sent me an email offering to donate copies of VC 7
> to the "key developers".  I count Tim, myself and Mark Hammond among
> the key developers.  Is there anyone else who would count themselves
> among those?
> 
> I presume he's offering the pro version, which has a real optimizer,
> unlike the "standard" version that was kindly donated by Bjorn
> Pettersen.
> 
> I can see advantages and disadvantages of moving to VC 7; I'm sure the
> VC 7 compiler is more standard-compliant and generates faster code,
> but a disadvantage is that you can't apparently link binaries built
> with VC 6 to a program built with VC 7, meaning that 3rd party
> extensions will have to be recompiled with VC 7 as well.  I have no
> idea how many projects this will affect (don't worry about Zope Corp
> :-).  Maybe we should try to include those 3rd party developers in the
> deal.  (I think Robin Dunn would be affected, wxPython has a Windows
> distribution.)
> 
> If you think this is a bad idea or if you would like to qualify for a
> compiler donation, please follow up!
> 
> --Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/)
> 
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Visual Studio 2003 came out a few weeks ago.  I honestly don't know if 
its considered VC8 or just VC7.1 with the same backend compilers.  But if 
you're going to upgrad, you might as well go all the way.

Also, I'm assuming 2.3 will still be compiled on 6.0, right?