[Python-Dev] mingw support?

[Steve Holden]

On 8/7/2010 9:27 PM, Greg Ewing wrote:
> Nick Coghlan wrote:
> 
>> This used to be more of an issue because MS didn't provide a decent
>> free compiler for their platform. These days (since the release of
>> Visual Studio Express), we expect that people willing to use (or
>> support) a closed OS can cope with also using the free-as-in-beer
>> closed compiler provided by the vendor of that OS.
> 
> The problem with the MS "free" compilers is that it's only a
> *temporary* freedom. They have a habit of withdrawing older
> versions when newer ones become available. Together with their
> other obnoxious habit of changing the C runtime in incompatible
> ways with every release, the result is that extensions for
> versions of Python older than N years can no longer be compiled
> with any legally-available free MS compiler.
> 
> If you're talking about pragmatism, I think this situation
> causes very pragmatic difficulties.
> 
+0.5

Using the MS stuff is a pragmatic solution in the first place, since it
allows the software to be released. It's true that there may be problems
down the line. Microsoft's recent apparent reduction of support for
dynamic languages represents a disturbing trend to me, though that is
not directly related to the question raised by this thread.

regards
 Steve
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