[Python-Dev] MS VC 7 offer

[Martin v. Löwis]

Guido van Rossum <guido@python.org> writes:

> More recently, Nick sent me an email offering to donate copies of VC 7
> to the "key developers".  I count Tim, myself and Mark Hammond among
> the key developers.  Is there anyone else who would count themselves
> among those?

Does he already have the copies, or would purchase them/donate the
money?

> If you think this is a bad idea or if you would like to qualify for a
> compiler donation, please follow up!

If the money isn't spent yet, I think it would be better spent for
copies of VC 7.1 (aka .NET 2003). Reportedly, this compiler fixes a
number of bugs of the 7.0 release, i.e. it crashes less frequently.
I'm still uncertain what the binary compatibility issues are, but I
have reason to assume that 7.0 and 7.1 are binary compatible.

Before getting multiple copies of the compiler, you should double
check that you can actually produce a Windows installer for that
compiler. Notice that there is a particular problem hidden here:

You will have to ship the C runtime (MSVCR7.DLL) with the
installer. However, Microsoft does *not* give you permission to
include the DLL file. Instead, they provide a Windows installer
snippet which you must "use" (I believe in the sense of "execute on
the target machine"). The installer snippet will check for versions,
deal with DLL caches, etc. Microsoft has procedure for combining
installer snippets into full installer files. They acknowledge the
existance of other tools that make installable binaries, but mandate
that these tools perform the same procedures. So you should check
whether your copy of Wise can deal with these issues.

If you find it could actually work, I'm +0 on accepting the donation
(though I won't need a copy myself). You have to switch sooner or
later, anyway, so you might as well switch now instead of later.  The
advantage I see for Python itself is that IPv6 would now work on
Windows. The disadvantage I see is that distutils would need to get
updated.

If you think that 2.3 won't be built with 7.x anyway, you might as
well reject the donation, and hope the donor will still be there to
offer VC 7.2/8.0.

Regards,
Martin