[Python-Dev] MS VC 7 offer

[Gerhard Häring]

Williams, Gerald S (Jerry) wrote:
> Paul Moore wrote:
> 
>>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).
> 
> Are there any reasons why we can't just switch to MINGW
> instead?

Yes. Several:

1) Python can't be built with MINGW, yet. I'm working on it, and so are 
other people, apparently (search python-list).

2) The Microsoft IDE is a more productive development environment for 
those that develop Python on Windows. I'm not sure, but my uneducated 
guess is that there are only a few Python developers who do any 
significant work on the win32 side, I only know about Guido, Tim, Mark. 
Those that actually put Python forward on win32 should decide about 
their development environment, IMO.

My guess is that MINGW will eventually be a supported platform, but not 
the primary method of building Python.

FWIW, Mozilla recently (1.4 beta 1) got compilable with mingw on win32. 
They're calling mingw a "tier 3" platform, while MSVC is a "tier 1" 
platform. I haven't looked up the terms, but I guess that "tier 3" means 
"nice to have" for a realease, while "tier 1" means "must have".

I reckon the situation will be a similar one for Python once it'll gain 
mingw support.

> If the VC7 RT is the way of the future, then
> presumably MINGW will eventually support it. [...]

"Eventually" being the keyword here.

-- Gerhard