Python under Windows: free cl.exe?

[Neil Hodgson]

J.Jacob:

> Where can we download the (free commandline version) microsoft C++ 6.0
> compiler cl.exe and nmake.exe?  We need it if we want to do
> extending/embedding C(++) and many 3rd party Python packages want you to
use
> cl.exe and nmake.exe

   I'm not sure if the tools you get with the .NET Beta SDK are sufficient
for building Python as I think it uses Visual C++ projects rather than
makefiles and so may need Visual Studio to build them. The SDK includes
Microsoft C/C++ 13.0 rather than C/C++ 12.0 which came with Visual C++ 6.0.

   The .NET Beta 2 SDK is available from (you will need to munge this URL
back into a single string):
http://msdn.microsoft.com/downloads/default.asp?url=/downloads/sample.asp?ur
l=/msdn-files/027/000/976/msdncompositedoc.xml&frame=true

   Buying one of the magazines that feature the .NET Beta SDK as cover discs
(such as a recent (August?) MSDN magazine) is a much better idea as it saves
a lot of download time and also gets you a beta of Visual Studio .NET. Dunno
if VS.NET is capable of building Python.

   Neil