- E02 - Support for MinGW Open Source Compiler

[Pat]

Fredrik Lundh wrote:
> "Pat"wrote:
>
> > I thought I was being as clear and specific as I needed to be.
> > Apparently not.  I'm talking about compiling the original source
code
>
> the python source or the extension source?
>
>     > The bottom line is that compiling C extension modules
>
> would indicate the latter.  setup.py handles that just fine, if you
have the
> right tools.  no pain at all.
>
> > Now, if you know something I don't, I'm all ears.  But I don't see
how
> > your suggestion solves my problem.
>
> if your problem is compiling C extension modules, I suggest getting a
> good compiler.  I've done that, and compiling C extension modules is
> no problem at all.
>
> if your problem is that you don't want to use a good compiler, or
that
> your company cannot afford to buy you a compiler, or you have other
> reasons to chose the "pain in the ass" way over the "it just works"
way,
> I'm afraid I cannot help you.  my time's too precious to waste on
inferior
> tools.

Okay, I think we are pretty much talking about the same thing.  My
problem is not that I'm unable or unwilling to purchase a good
compiler.  My problem is that I don't want to make it a requirement of
my users.  The twist is that my users will be working out of a
Subversion repository that includes source code for extensions written
in C.  Those extensions need to be compiled, and the code changes too
frequently for me to want to deal with supplying compiled binaries.

So I'm looking for options for Windows users who do not have, and are
unwilling to get, a Microsoft compiler.  For some users, minGW is an
attractive option.  For those who want to use minGW, I'm trying to
establish whether or not minGW is a viable option, particularly for
Python 2.4.  I was under the impression that there were possible
advantages to compiling Python itself using minGW, but that that
required some patches that hadn't been applied to Python (for reasons
unknown to me).  Said patches are available here:

http://jove.prohosting.com/iwave/ipython/pyMinGW.html

I'm also under the impression that there are possible disadvantages to
compiling Python itself with anything other than the Microsoft's
optimizing compiler, such as performance.  But I haven't seen any
numbers on that, so I don't have information one way or the other.

It may also be the case that minGW can now correctly compile extension
that link to the newer runtime used by Python 2.4, but that wasn't
always the case.  If that's true, that would eliminate the primary
reason for wanting to compile Python itself with minGW, though
philosophical differences with MS might motivate some to want to avoid
the MS compilers altogether.

Perhaps the only thing that's a mess is my understanding of the
situation.  But even if that's the case, I don't think I'm alone, based
on all the threads I've read over the past couple of days.  ;-)

Thanks in advance for any help anyone can offer to reduce my confusion.

Patrick K. O'Brien
Orbtech    http://www.orbtech.com
Schevo     http://www.schevo.org
Pypersyst  http://www.pypersyst.org