[EVALUATION] - E02 - Support for MinGW Open Source Compiler

["Martin v. Löwis"]

Ilias Lazaridis wrote:
> My questions:

It appears that nobody has answered the questions, yet.

> a) Why does the Python Foundation not provide additionally a binary 
> version, compiled with MinGW or another open-source compiler?

We don't have the resources to do that.

> b) Why does the Python Foundation not ensure, that the python 
> source-code is directly compilable with MinGW?

In the past, we did not do that because we did not know how to do it.
With Python 2.4.1, we now had a contribution that should allow direct
compilation of extensions using MingW.

> c) Why are the following efforts not _directly_ included in the python 
> source code base?
> 
> http://jove.prohosting.com/iwave/ipython/pyMinGW.html

I believe this was because it was never contributed to Python.

> d) Is it really neccessary that I dive into such adventures, to be able 
> to do the most natural thing like: "developing python extensions with 
> MinGW"?
> 
> http://starship.python.net/crew/kernr/mingw32/Notes.html

No. These instructions are outdated.

> e) Is there any official statement available regarding the msvcr71.dll 
> and other MS licensing issues?
> 
> [see several threads "[Python-Dev] Is msvcr71.dll re-redistributable?"]
> 
> http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2005-February/thread.html

No, there isn't.

> f) Are there any official (Python Foundation) statements / rationales 
> available, which explain why the MinGW compiler is unsupported, although 
> parts of the community obviously like to use it?
> 
> http://groups-beta.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/msg/dc3474e6c8053336

The official statement is that the MingW compiler is supported, indeed.

Regards,
Martin