Python MSVC++ binaries considered evil

[Edward Diener]

The Borland C++ Builder compiler is completely free and more C++ 
compliant than VC++ 6.0 or VC++ .NET . You can download it and the free 
debugger at http://www.borland.com/bcppbuilder/freecompiler .

J.Jacob wrote:

> 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?