[Python-Dev] MS VC 7 offer

[Paul Moore]

"Mark Hammond" <mhammond@skippinet.com.au> writes:

> I must say that anecdotally, I find this to be true. Developers are
> *not* flocking to VC7. I wonder if that fact has anything to do with
> MS offering free compilers?

One further data point - the free mingw gcc compiler generates
binaries which depend on msvcrt.dll. So, if the Pythonlabs
distribution switches to MSVC7, developers using MSVC6 *and*
developers using mingw will be unable to build compatible extensions. 
The only compatible compiler will be MSVC7 (either the paid for
version or the free limited version).

Whatever you may think of Microsoft's offer, I feel that this
reduction in choice is a bad thing.

Paul.
-- 
This signature intentionally left blank