compile.py create DLL with Visual C++

[Jason Orendorff]

> I am going crazy trying to find a simple VC++ project example of a
> Win32 DLL which is basically a "Hello World" demo.

Okay, 2 things:

1.  What you really want is python's distutils.
    http://aspn.activestate.com/ASPN/Cookbook/Python/Recipe/66509
    It's sweet.  You need your source file and a quick setup.py file.
    "python setup.py install" builds and installs your extension.

2.  If you really need a VC project, just open VC++ and do
      File > New > Project > Win32 Dynamic-Link Library.
    Get rid of the auto-generated code (you can probably just
    delete everything except the .c file) and put in your code.

    Then go to
      Project > Settings > C/C++ > Preprocessor
    and add in the "Additional include directories" box, type in
    your Python "Include" directory (you need the include files,
    of course; you can get them from the Python source
    distribution.)   (While you're in here, you can turn off
    precompiled headers.  They're nothing but trouble.)

    Then, do
      Build > Set Active Configuration
    and select the "Release" configuration.  Unless you have a debug
    version of Python installed somewhere (unlikely), you won't have
    any use for a debug DLL.

    I'm probably forgetting something, but that's how I started and
    it worked out okay in the end.

    Once you're done, copy the DLL from your Release directory to
    someplace like C:\python22\lib\site-packages.  You can rename it
    from foomodule.dll to foomodule.pyd if you like.

## Jason Orendorff    http://www.jorendorff.com/