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

[Paul Moore]

On 26 October 2014 23:11, Ray Donnelly <mingw.android at gmail.com> wrote:
> I don't know where this "ABI compatible" thing came into being;

Simple. If a mingw-built CPython doesn't work with the same extensions
as a MSVC-built CPython, then the community gets fragmented (because
you can only use the extensions built for your stack). Assuming numpy
needs mingw and ultimately only gets built for a mingw-compiled Python
(because the issues building for MSVC-built Python are too hard) and
assuming that nobody wants to make the effort to build pywin32 under
mingw, then what does someone who needs both numpy and pywin32 do?

Avoiding that issue is what I mean by ABI-compatible. (And that's all
I mean by it, nothing more subtle or controversial).

I view it as critical (because availability of binaries is *already*
enough of a problem in the Windows world, without making it worse)
that we avoid this sort of fragmentation. I'm not seeing an
acknowledgement from the mingw side that they agree. That's my
concern. If we both agree, there's nothing to argue about.

Paul