Python MSVC++ binaries considered evil

[Edward Diener]

Cliff Wells wrote:

> On Sat, 26 Jan 2002 00:13:12 GMT
> Mark Hammond wrote:
> 
> 
>>Cliff Wells wrote:
>>
>>>What I was trying to say is that for a Windows user to actually do the
>>>compilation with a free compiler, it is nowhere near as simple as it is
>>>
> for
> 
>>>say Linux, where gcc is the standard.  Obviously Python itself is very
>>>portable.  I also won't disagree that VC++ may in fact be the best
>>>
> Windows
> 
>>>compiler (probably for reasons best left to the antitrust courts).
>>>
>>You are still missing Tim's point.  Most professional Windows developers 
>>tend to have MSVC.  This means that for most professional Windows 
>>developers it is in many ways *simpler* than Linux - no configure or 
>>install.
>>
> 
> I don't disagree.  In fact I _have_ VC++ (not that I use it much).  I'm not
> arguing that it isn't very simple _if_ you have VC++.  But, if you have
> Python on Windows, you will need to shell out at least $100 if you ever
> want to compile C modules for Python, or Python itself for that matter. 
> Personally, I would dump VC in 0.1 seconds if the Python source included
> Makefiles for FreeBCC (or some other free compiler).  What I am saying is
> that for people without VC it is not so simple.  If there were no free
> compilers available for Win32 this would be moot (and not so long ago this
> was the case, more or less), but it isn't the case today.  Besides, I
> wasn't aware that Python was targeted exclusively at professional
> programmers.


It should be very possible to create a Python distribution using 
Borland's free compiler. It has some bugs, as does VC++, but is 
generally more compliant to the C++ standard than VC++. I don't write C 
extensions for Python so I have little interest in the matter, but the 
Borland newsgroups have the best response and the most help, if you need 
it, of any company's newsgroups I have ever see not directly supported 
by the company itself. The greatest difficulty you will have is 
Borland's documentation, which is almost always mediocre and minimal at 
best, but the newsgroup people should help ease that problem greatly.

Although I heavily disagree with Mark Hammond's assertion that VC++ is 
the best Windows compiler, I think he is totally correct that others 
must take up the burden of a Python distribution using another compiler 
such as Borland's free BCC.