[Distutils] source distributions for compiler-less machines

[Thomas Heller]

I'm currently hacking together a python package management system - I
have some free time over the weekend ;-).

I just had an idea how to prepare source-distributions for people
(on windows) without a compiler:

The developer could just call 'setup.py build' before calling
'setup.py sdist', add the '--no-prune' flag to the sdist command, add
'recursive-include build *.*' to the MANIFEST.in file, and now the
build directory, with the object files and binary extension files is
included in the zip file.

This source distribution can now be installed by 'setup.py install'
just as usual - since all targets are up to date, the (nonexistant) C
compiler will not be called.

Any comments on this idea?

Thomas