[Python-Dev] VC++ 2008 Express Edition now locked away?

[Case Van Horsen]

On Wed, Mar 6, 2013 at 2:20 AM, Terry Reedy <tjreedy at udel.edu> wrote:
> Clicking this link
> http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=14597
> on this Developer Guide page
> http://docs.python.org/devguide/setup.html#windows
> now returns a
> "We are sorry, the page you requested cannot be found."
> page with search results.
>
> The first search result
> http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/nl/Vsexpressinstall/thread/2dc7ae6a-a0e7-436b-a1b3-3597ffac6a97
> suggests that one must first go to http://profile.microsoft.com
> which forwards to the live.com login page. Logging in with my un-expired
> non-developer account did not make the original link work.
>
> The mdsn page http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-US/
> has Visual Studio / Download trial, which leads to
> https://www.microsoft.com/visualstudio/eng/downloads
> which lists 2012 and 2010 but not 2008.
>
> I suspect that an msdn account is required for most people to get 2008.
>
> A later link leads to
> https://www.dreamspark.com/Product/Product.aspx?productid=34#
> which suggests that vc++2008 express is also available to verified degree
> students. I don't qualify so I will not try.
>
> So it would appear that section "1.1.3.3. Windows" of "1. Getting Started"
> (setup.rst) needs further revision.
>
> Or perhaps we could persuade Microsoft to let us distribute it ourselves so
> Windows versions of 2.7 do not become increasingly unusable.

The "Microsoft Windows SDK for Windows 7 and .NET Framework 3.5 SP1"
is still available for download. It includes the command line
compilers that are used with VS 2008. I have used to create extensions
for Python 2.6 to 3.2. There is a later version of the SDK (for .NET
4.x) that includes the compilers from VS 2010.

To use the SDK compiler, you need to do a few manual steps first.

After starting a command window, you need to run a batch file to
configure your environment. Choose the appropriate option from

C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\VC\bin\vcvars64.bat

or

C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\VC\bin\vcvars32.bat

Then set two environment variables:

set MSSdk=1
set DISTUTILS_USE_SDK=1


After these steps, the standard python setup.py install should work.

casevh
>
> --
> Terry Jan Reedy
>
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