Download Visual Studio Express 2008 now

[Paul Rudin]

"Martin v. Loewis" <martin at v.loewis.de> writes:

> Microsoft has just released Visual Studio 2010, along with its free (of
> charge) Express edition. Following a tradition, they are likely to
> withdraw support and availability for VS 2008 Express some time in the
> future.
>
> Python 2.6, 2.7, and 3.1 are all built with that release (i.e. 2008).
> Because of another long tradition, Python extension modules must be
> built with the same compiler version (more specifically, CRT version) as
> Python itself. So to build extension modules for any of these releases,
> you need to have a copy of VS 2008 or VS 2008 Express.
>
> If you are planning to build Python extension modules in the next five
> years, I recommend that you obtain a copy of VS Express, just in case
> Microsoft removes it from their servers. As mentioned, it's free of
> charge. When downloading it for later use, it's probably best to get the
> offline ISO image release, available from
>
> http://www.microsoft.com/express/Downloads/#2008-All
>
> Disclaimer: I'm not connected with Microsoft or its release process. Any
> claim on future actions that Microsoft may take is purely hypothetical.
>

I'm curious to know exactly the differences between the c/c++ compilers
you get with various versions of VS and those you get with the (command
line only) Windows SDK (formerly called the platform SDK). 

The windows sdk is a free download. Is the compiler you get the same as
the one you get with the full paid version of VS?  This web page seems
to suggest it might be
<http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/bb980924.aspx>