New versions breaking extensions, etc.

[John Machin]

Jive wrote:
> "Martin v. Löwis" <martin at v.loewis.de> wrote in message
> news:41BABC12.6080808 at v.loewis.de...
> > OTOH, people who only have VC6 just need to buy VS.NET 2003,
> > which is still available.
>
> I don't even know how to do that! :-)  What's the difference between
VC++
> .net Standard and Visual Studio .net Pro?  (Besides $370?)  Is the
former
> C++ only, but with the IDE, and the later the whole shebang with
SourceSafe,
> VBASIC, and all that?
>
> OH NO!  I've gone seriously off-topic.  Please don't call the Spanish
> Inquisiton.  Allow me to re-phrase the question:  What do I need to
build
> (on-topic) Python extensions?

Short answer to Jive's question: (1) free non-MS C compiler (either
MinGW or Borland) (2) inner calm.

I really can't understand what all the screaming and yelling is about.
Windows Python is built using an MS compiler. Those extension
developers who can't/won't buy the MS compiler use either the free
MinGW compiler or the free Borland 5.5 compiler (or both!). Yes, you
have to be careful about mixing the runtimes. An extension that tries
to use a FILE * that was created by Python will crash. Using free() on
a pointer that was malloc()ed by the other party isn't a bright idea
either. There are adequate solutions to these problems, involving
Python-supplied higher-level functions instead of C runtime functions.
Otherwise, not a problem. Distutils has made the process of using MinGW
and bcpp a snap. The documentation is adequate. When a new version of
Python comes out, one rebuilds and tests one's extensions. So ... now
there are THREE compilers that can be used instead of the one that
Python's built with; what's the big deal?