[Python-Dev] Status of C compilers for Python on Windows

[Paul Moore]

On 10 October 2014 15:36, Tres Seaver <tseaver at palladion.com> wrote:
> On 10/10/2014 05:26 AM, Larry Hastings wrote:
>> IMO the benefit from supporting other compilers on Windows is
>> negligible
>
> Did you miss the OP's point that OpenBLAS cannot be compiled with MSVC,
> raising the priority of mingw-buildable extensions for numerical work?

The proposal here is to make it possible to build *python* with a
different compiler. Being able to compile extensions with mingw is
independent. It used to be relatively easy to build extensions with
mingw, although Python's support for that has bitrotted to the point
where it's not worth it unless you have a strong need (which is why
the SciPy folks are working on it).

In my view, anyone capable of modifying the Python build process to
support other compilers would also be more than capable of improving
the distutils support for building extensions with mingw in a way that
is compatible with the current MSVC-built Python.

While I can't dictate where anyone else chooses to spend their time,
it seems to me that working on allowing non-MSVC builds of Python is a
sad waste of limited resources while the mingw extension building
issues remain.

Paul