freeBSD 2.1.1 extension problem

[Robin Becker]

In article <9md4d401l6k at enews1.newsguy.com>, Alex Martelli
<aleax at aleax.it> writes
>"Robin Becker" <robin at jessikat.fsnet.co.uk> wrote in message
>news:+UeuyXAErgi7Ewiy at jessikat.fsnet.co.uk...
>> Whilst trying to recompile an extension with freeBSD 4.2 + Python-2.1.1
>> I'm getting the following error.
>>
>> /usr/local/include/python2.1/unicodeobject.h:91: wchar.h: No such file
>> or directory
>>
>> This extension compiled OK with Python-2.1. So must I upgrade my OS or
>> is this a buglet of some kind?
>
>I think the ISO standard for the C language mandates the
>existence (includability, actually) of wchar.h, and Python
>now requires a standard-compliant C compiler, so it doesn't
>seem like a buglet to me that the installation isn't
>checking for wchar.h's existence.  If your C compiler for
>FreeBSD doesn't have a wchar.h in a standard include
>directory, and you can upgrade to one that does, this
>might indeed help.
>
>
>Alex

So is gcc now defunct?

I looked in vain for wchar on my colocated platform and don't find it.
Python-2.1.1 manages to build fine and on that machine I don't get the
problem building the extension.

The comments in unicodeobject.h seem to imply a missing wchar.h might
not be fatal.

I'm guessing this might be some difference in the way the two
pythons/distutils were configured.
-- 
Robin Becker