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

[Antoine Pitrou]

On Sun, 26 Oct 2014 09:06:36 +1100
Chris Angelico <rosuav at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Sun, Oct 26, 2014 at 8:59 AM, Antoine Pitrou <solipsis at pitrou.net> wrote:
> > How do you know this isn't a problem, since you haven't *tested* with
> > MSVC?
> > Why on Earth would you want to test your PEP work with an unsupported
> > Windows compiler and runtime, rather than with the officially supported
> > compiler and runtime?
> 
> This discussion revolved around supporting MinGW in addition to MSVC.
> If it had been supported when I was doing that, I could have spun
> myself up a Windows build and tested it.

My point is that your "Windows build" would not have the same behaviour
as a MSVC-produced Windows build, and so testing it with it would not
certify that your code would actually be compatible with genuine
MSVC builds of CPython, which we will not stop supporting.

Therefore, what you and the OP are proposing would not make it
*easier* to ensure cross-platform compatibility but rather *harder*, by
adding another incompatible build configuration to the mix of supported
configurations.

The only remaining question is whether it is worthwhile adding support
for such an additional platform, and given that MinGW is extremely
marginal amongst Windows developers, the answer is IMHO no.

Regards

Antoine.