Compiling disutil modules on Windows

[Geoff Caplan]

Neil,

NH>    You could try to use mingw:
NH> http://sebsauvage.net/python/mingw.html

I had spotted this page but it looks a bit daunting for someone with
no C skills. (Though the instructions do seem quite clear: thanks,
Sébastien!) Most people come to a very high level language like Python
because the *don't* want to muck around with stuff like gcc. I can see
this eating up time :-(

You've got to be grateful to Active State for producing such a
comprehensive and convenient distro, but does anyone know why they
have chosen an expensive and out-of-date commercial compiler? Why not
gcc, or at least MSVC++ 7, which is a free download?

For client-side stuff it's still impossible to avoid Windoze entirely,
for the time being at least. It's an important platform for Python, so
it would be good if the leading distro made this convenient. At
present the choice appears to be between forking out good $$$ to the
company that is covertly attacking Open Source through its proxy SCO
(not something I'm prepared to consider!), or to get involved in some
low-level hacking. This is surely not an ideal state of affairs?


------------------ 
Geoff Caplan
Vario Software Ltd
(+44) 121-515 1154