python.exe is not a valid win32 executable

[Terry Reedy]

On 10/29/2015 1:14 PM, Laura Creighton wrote:

> Alas, it is a 'won't fix' for python.org.  Maybe Activestate or
> Continuum.io will support XP with their 3.5 packages,

It would be an unpleasant task at best.  CPython does not work with xp 
because is uses shiny new system features that first appeared in Vista. 
  Either they were not used before, or the code contained version-based 
conditions to either use the new feature or use an inferior workaround.

Suppose you want to use 'yield from' in a 3.x module.  You have 3 
choices: 1. don't use it; 2. use it conditionally and also provide a 
workaround based on 'yield'; 3. use it and as a consequence, require 3.4+.

By analogy, the cpython developers felt constrained to use options 1 or 
2, both of which have their costs, and support xp for as long as 
Microsoft supported xp.  When Microsoft dropped support for xp, they 
felt free to switch to option 3 *for new versions*.

I don't know if there are any new-in-win7 features that coredevs are 
just waiting to use when Vista goes off MS support.

-- 
Terry Jan Reedy