Compiling python extensions on Windows

[Tim Peters]

[Richard P. Muller, on Cygwin]
> ...
> (2) If not, I have access to several other build environments
> (Codewarrior, Microsoft VisualStudios). Does anyone know which
> environment was used to build Python2.1 on windows?

You didn't say where you got Python2.1 from.  Python 2.1 now ships with
Cygwin (thanks to Jason Tishler); here from a straight recent Cygwin
install:

$ type python
python is /usr/bin/python

$ python
Python 2.1 (#1, Apr 17 2001, 09:45:01)
[GCC 2.95.3-2 (cygwin special)] on cygwin_nt-4.01
Type "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>>

Try using that one.

> Are there easy to follow instructions anywhere for the build
> (I assume that "./configure" doesn't work on windows)?

It does if you're building Python on Cygwin (but since they already do that
for you, I'm not sure why you'd want to).  If you're talking about the stock
Windows Python distribution, you need to download the source distribution
and read PCBuild/readme.txt:  it comes with an MSVC project file for
building Python under MSVC 6.

I suspect your problems are due to mixing builds.  If you're going to do
Windows work under Cygwin, stick with the Cygwin stuff.  If you're going to
do Windows work under Windows, avoid the Cygwin stuff.