[Python-Dev] Moving Python 3.5 on Windows to a new compiler

[dw+python-dev at hmmz.org]

On Fri, Jun 06, 2014 at 03:41:22PM +0000, Steve Dower wrote:

> [snip]

Speaking as a third party who aims to provide binary distributions for
recent Python releases on Windows, every new compiler introduces a
licensing and configuration headache. So I guess the questions are:

* Does the ABI stability address some historical real world problem with
  Python binary builds? (I guess possibly)

* Is the existing solution of third parties building under e.g. Mingw as
  an option of last resort causing real world issues? It seems to work
  for a lot of people, although I personally avoid it.

* Have other compiler vendors indicated they will change their ABI
  environment to match VS under this new stability guarantee? If not,
  then as yet there is no real world benefit here.

* Has Python ever hit a showstopper release issue as a result of a bug
  in MSVC? (I guess probably not).

* Will VS 14 be golden prior to Python 3.5's release? It would suck to
  rely on a beta compiler.. :)


Sorry for dunking water on this, but I've recently spent a ton of time
getting a Microsoft build environment running, and it seems possible a
new compiler may not yet justify more effort if there is little tangible
benefit.


David