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

[Paul Moore]

On 25 October 2014 23:22, Chris Angelico <rosuav at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Sun, Oct 26, 2014 at 9:19 AM, Antoine Pitrou <solipsis at pitrou.net> wrote:
>> 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.
>>
>
> So you're saying it's impossible to support two compilers?

No, rather that Windows currently only has a single supported compiler
(excluding cygwin, which is essentially a different OS). Adding a
second compiler doesn't just involve adding support for it - which is
all that the people offering mingw patches are doing - but also
involves going through the whole CPython ecosystem locating the places
where there is an implicit assumption that "all Windows builds use the
same compiler" and fixing them. I've already pointed out where this is
a question for pip and wheel. Whoever wants to add support for a
second compiler needs to be willing to do this part of the job as
well.

Handwaving arguments that "it's binary compatible" aren't enough. Prove it.

Paul