[Python-Dev] MS VC 7 offer

["Martin v. Löwis"]

Williams, Gerald S (Jerry) wrote:

> My personal (admittedly probably controversial) preference
> would be to eventually drop VC support entirely in favor of
> existing free optimizing compilers. 

You make it sound as if compilers are a religion.
They are tools, and it matters how good they cooperate with Python on 
some system. They are not competitors, so you can Python cooperate with 
existing free optimizing compilers, and simultaneously support VC.

> Of course, if Microsoft
> makes an optimizing compiler available for free to everyone,
> it would make this position much more difficult to maintain.

Your position is already difficult to maintain. He who makes the release 
choses the tool. This is free software: If you don't like that release, 
make a different one.

> If Python is moving toward VC7, I'd like to be counted in
> for a copy. 

Python is not moving towards or away from specific product. If it is 
moving at all, it is moving towards ISO C99. We are talking about the 
PythonLabs Windows installer, not about "Python".

> I'm not going to tell anyone that they can't use their IDE
> of choice, but keep in mind that IDE != compiler. Setting
> up project files to use different build tools isn't hard.
> If you're concerned about VC-specific debug information,
> you could still use VC for debug builds.

Somebody will have to maintain the VC makefiles. That somebody won't 
simultaneously maintain a MingW infrastructure, because of time 
constraints. So to use a MingW release process, we would need a 
volunteer to produce such a release. Do you volunteer?

Regards,
Martin