Python MSVC++ binaries considered evil

[Tim Roberts]

bokr at oz.net (Bengt Richter) wrote:
>
>What is a "Microsoft DLL"? How _exactly_ are they different from
>Borland DLLs? The interface to a DLL is a standard that the Borland
>compiler can and regularly does compile code to meet. Beyond the interface
>is what happens in libraries, and there you can get in trouble, but I
>don't believe it's a total inevitability.

He has described it incorrectly, but the problem is real.

Microsoft introduced a new style of import library in Visual C++ 6.0, and
the Win32 Pythons ship with the new style import libraries.  The new style
is SIGNIFICANTLY smaller than the old style import libraries, but they are
not downward compatible: they cannot be used with Borland C++, nor even
with Visual C++ 5.0.

So, it's not the .DLLs that are broken, but rather the .LIBs that get you
there.
--
- Tim Roberts, timr at probo.com
  Providenza & Boekelheide, Inc.