RELEASED Python 2.4, alpha 1

[Mike C. Fletcher]

Mike C. Fletcher wrote:
...

> Where did you find this out?  The installation includes msvcr71.dll, 
> though that may very well just be because the tools themselves require 
> it.  The options the compiler prints on the command-line seem to 
> suggest that it can link against msvcrt.dll (which I gather would be 
> msvcr71 in the new version).

Okay, I've just built mxTextTools 2.1 with the non-recursive extensions, 
and SimpleParse is able to run its entire test suite under Python 2.4a1 
without errors using it, so at the very least things look promising.  
There were a *large* number of warnings about soon-to-be-obsolete and/or 
unrecognised flags during the compilation, but nothing that actually 
stopped the compile.

I haven't tried uninstalling a Visual Studio 6.0 install on the same 
machine to see if that makes a difference, but the compile is definitely 
using the VC Toolkit compiler and linker, and the Platform SDK include 
and lib directories.

Building Numpy, so far, has failed with:

   Creating library build\temp.win32-2.4\Release\Src\_numpy.lib and 
object build\temp.win32-2.4\Release\Src\_numpy.exp
arrayobject.obj : error LNK2019: unresolved external symbol __ftol2 
referenced in function _FLOAT_to_CHAR

I can't find any reference in Python, Numpy, the Platform SDK or the VC 
Toolkit to _FLOAT_to_CHAR.  I can only imagine that someone is playing 
macro tricks to construct it from something else, I just don't know 
where those tricks are.

Have been able to build a few other trivial extensions as well, nothing 
that wouldn't have worked with MingW32, though.  Real test will be C++ 
extensions (and, of course, PyOpenGL, which *should* be fine with Ming, 
but isn't).

I had to do some (rather ugly) hacking around in msvccompiler to get 
past it's insistence on registry variables for everything (the VC 
Toolkit doesn't seem to use the registry for storing configuration 
directories), and to teach it how to access the Platform SDK (though I'm 
not sure why it needs that).

Anyway, for now I need to get to bed, so I suppose I'll pick this up 
some other day.  Main message is, don't discount the possibility of 
building with the Toolkit just yet.  Have fun,
Mike

________________________________________________
  Mike C. Fletcher
  Designer, VR Plumber, Coder
  http://members.rogers.com/mcfletch/
  blog: http://zope.vex.net/~mcfletch/plumbing/