[Python-Dev] mingw support?

[Sturla Molden]

>> Enthought (32-bit) ships with a mingw gcc compiler configured to build
>> extensions.
>
> Hmm. Including a gcc seems like a lot of overhead, not at least for the
> need to provide sources as well.

A lighter solution would be to include an importlib for the correct CRT as
well as for Python, and make sure distutils link with both for mingw. For
example we cannot use mingw for 64 bit extensions to Python 2.6 because
libpython26.a is missing from Python and mingw-w64 don't have
libmsvcr90.a. If Python shipped with both, there would not be a missing
import library for the CRT and no confusion as to which CRT to link.

For Python 2.5 there also was a CRT licensing issue for py2exe, but that
disappaired when MS provided download links for the Visual Studio
redistributables. I think this also contributed to a motivation for a
plain mingw build of Python 2.5, as it would take the CRT licensing issue
away from py2exe. But as of Python 2.6 this is not a problem anymore. Now
it is sufficient to direct the user to Microsoft's free CRT download.
Everybody might not be aware of that.

Sturla