Python MSVC++ binaries considered evil

[RPM1]

"J.Jacob" <joost_jacob at hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:13285ea2.0201221557.3421dfd3 at posting.google.com...
> One of the beauties of Python is that you can extend it with C modules.
> Recode your bottlenecks in C and you program can have the speed of
programs
> written completely in C.
>
> Unfortunately this is not true when you have a Windows operating system
and
> you have Python installed from binaries.  You will need the Microsoft
Visual
> C++ 6.0 compiler.  That compiler is expensive and has licence issues.
Since
> most Python installations are from Windows binaries this effectively ties
> Python to Microsoft.  Maybe many developers have some Unix version
available
> but their customers will usually have Windows.  Some people have been
doing a
> great job building Python Windows binaries and installation programs and
this
> has added considerably to the popularity of Python.  However, if you are
going
> to write software for them your C extensions need to talk to the Windows
> binaries.
>
> Is there another solution?  With the Cygwin package you can compile Python
for
> Windows but this makes you depending on Cygwin, and your customers will
> probably have to install Cygwin.  The MingW gcc compiler for Windows looks
> good but i have not been able to compile Python with it and i have not
seen
> anybody else doing it successfully without losing much Windows modules.
Do we
> need a brand new C compiler?  Will Microsoft make it impossible for that
> compiler to have COM / DLL / VB / etc.  interfaces?
>

I have not tried to compile 'Python' with Mingw32 but I certainly have had
no
problem writing extension modules with ming.  The hardest part was finding
the information on how to do it on the net, (a lot of Google and guess or
two).

Patrick
.