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

[Glenn Linderman]

On 10/28/2014 6:45 AM, Stephen J. Turnbull wrote:
> because it's a fork, it's a different name
I think this is an important point, and first brought to this discussion 
here. A fork is _not_ called Python, but something else... but if it is 
kept extremely compatible and up-to-date in the hopes of reintegration 
once it proves that it solves a problem, and that there are sufficient 
users, then such hopes seem reasonable.

And targeting the new "future compatible" MSVCRT sounds like the right 
approach, although it won't solve today's problems today, but it may 
solve tomorrow's problems for a long time into the future... if the 
MinGW people can be convinced to support that new MSVCRT as well.

In addition to all the components that are enabled by MinGW 
(particularly Fortran based extensions), one must remember that the 
current Windows Python also has extensions that interface to MSVC 
libraries that have never been ported to MinGW or Linux, and may never 
be. So an incompatible MinGW-built fork will lose some of those 
extensions... they may not be important to the folks that need MinGW, 
but that would be where & why the community would be split if the MinGW 
fork is not compatible with (some version of MSVC).  Of course, the 
current MSVC-based community is _already_ having issues with 
incompatible versions of MSVC (not limiting that community to Python, 
but broader users of MSVC)... enough problems that even M$ has noticed 
that their incompatibilities are problematical, and are attempting to 
address... not just for Python, but for many other systems and libraries 
as well. So gathering around and supporting their attempts to achieve 
that, by using their new system early, when feedback can still have a 
chance of improving that new "future compatible" system, will benefit 
everyone... but that time is limited, from what Steve Dower reports of 
the schedule... hoping to be ready for Python 3.5.

So now is an excellent time for this discussion to be happening, and if 
some work can be done to fork, pull the patches together, and tweak them 
to work with the new MSVC, in the Python 3.5 timeframe, you can have a 
phenomenal result, even if it is still a fork at that time.
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