VS2005 seems to be officially supported. Here's part of the readme file in the PCBuild8 directory in the Python 2.5 source.
" Building Python using VC++ 8.0 ------------------------------------- This directory is used to build Python for Win32 platforms, e.g. Windows 95, 98 and NT. It requires Microsoft Visual C++ 8.0 (a.k.a. Visual Studio 2005). There are two Platforms defined, Win32 and x64. (For other Windows platforms and compilers, see ../PC/readme.txt.) " Although I take your point about sharing resources. I'm not sure I should bother compiling 2.6, since I'll probably come across/already use modules that I need that don't support 2.6 since it's so new. So it would be nice to know why following the instructions doesn't work. Compilers never work for me, though.. even when I follow instructions and they work for everybody else. It's like a schroedinbug - I just don't expect them to work. As a matter of principle, though, it /should/ work.. so it's gotta be *somebody's* job to debug this! :P "Christian Heimes" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message news:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Matthieu Brucher schrieb: >> Hi, >> >> I did not manage to build extension with distutils with Python compiled >> with >> VS different than 2003. The need for 2003 was hard-coded in distutils. >> You can try building extensions with VS2008 with Scons. This is what I do >> a >> lot, and everything works fine as long as the interface does not use >> standard structures (like FILE, custom structures are fine) or objects >> allocated in the extension is freed in the extension. > > Python 2.5 is compiled with VS 2003. Neither VS 2005 nor 2008 are > officially supported. > > You can compile extensions with a different version of MS VC but it can > get you in a lot of trouble. Every version of the VS Compiler uses its > own C Runtime Library (MSVCRT). You can't share some resources like > allocated memory and FILE* objects between MSVCRTs. > > Christian > -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list