[Python-Dev] VC++ 2008 Express Edition now locked away?

[Steve Dower]

From: Case Van Horsen
> On Wed, Mar 6, 2013 at 2:20 AM, Terry Reedy <tjreedy at udel.edu> wrote:
> > Clicking this link
> > http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=14597
> > on this Developer Guide page
> > http://docs.python.org/devguide/setup.html#windows
> > now returns a
> > "We are sorry, the page you requested cannot be found."
> > page with search results.
> >
> > The first search result
> > http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/nl/Vsexpressinstall/thread/2dc
> > 7ae6a-a0e7-436b-a1b3-3597ffac6a97 suggests that one must first go to
> > http://profile.microsoft.com which forwards to the live.com login
> > page. Logging in with my un-expired non-developer account did not make
> > the original link work.
> >
> > The mdsn page http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-US/ has Visual Studio /
> > Download trial, which leads to
> > https://www.microsoft.com/visualstudio/eng/downloads
> > which lists 2012 and 2010 but not 2008.
> >
> > I suspect that an msdn account is required for most people to get 2008.
> >
> > A later link leads to
> > https://www.dreamspark.com/Product/Product.aspx?productid=34#
> > which suggests that vc++2008 express is also available to verified
> > degree students. I don't qualify so I will not try.
> >
> > So it would appear that section "1.1.3.3. Windows" of "1. Getting Started"
> > (setup.rst) needs further revision.
> >
> > Or perhaps we could persuade Microsoft to let us distribute it
> > ourselves so Windows versions of 2.7 do not become increasingly
> unusable.
> 
> The "Microsoft Windows SDK for Windows 7 and .NET Framework 3.5 SP1"
> is still available for download. It includes the command line compilers that are
> used with VS 2008. I have used to create extensions for Python 2.6 to 3.2.
> There is a later version of the SDK (for .NET
> 4.x) that includes the compilers from VS 2010.

This is the same response that I got internally.

The download link is http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=3138 and you can choose to only download and install the compilers.

Cheers,
Steve

> To use the SDK compiler, you need to do a few manual steps first.
> 
> After starting a command window, you need to run a batch file to configure
> your environment. Choose the appropriate option from
> 
> C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\VC\bin\vcvars64.bat
> 
> or
> 
> C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\VC\bin\vcvars32.bat
> 
> Then set two environment variables:
> 
> set MSSdk=1
> set DISTUTILS_USE_SDK=1
> 
> 
> After these steps, the standard python setup.py install should work.
> 
> casevh
> >
> > --
> > Terry Jan Reedy