Thank you Khalid,
OK. (4) (compile using MSVC6) worked. Now working through various issues to do with paths and naming (_d suffix to root for DEBUG, _ prefix to root for SWIG, and I had not spotted that SWIG makes Module.py that imports _Module.pyd but not _Module_d.pyd for DEBUG builds). I'd like to persuade IDLE to use my locally compiled version of Python rather than the one I downloaded, and will find out how eventually. Necessary to keep to a VC6 build of 2.4.1 throughout. Rgds, Bill (an inveterate top poster, I'm afraid). "A.B., Khalid" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message news:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Okay, let me have another stap at this. > > As you have probably noticed MSVC6 is no longer actively supported as > far as Python 2.4 goes. The official distribution of Python 2.4 for > Windows is built using MSVC7.1 (or whatever you wish to call it). > > We are told that building C extensions with MSVC6 for use in the > official Python 2.4 (which uses the MSVCR71) is not safe, and mixing > the different runtime libraries that your extension (or my extension) > with that which official Python 2.4 uses will/might cause crashes. > Google around for details on this. > > So, what to do? You seem to have four options. > > 1. Get and use the MSVC7.1 compiler. > 2. Get and use the freely distributed MS compiler. > 3. Download the Python source[1] and compile it yourself in MSVC6 > (there are project files in the source to enable you to do that). Then > use your MSVC6 to create the extension. > 4. Get and use MinGW and pyMinGW[2] > > > > > Regards, > Khalid > > > > > [1] Check to see if your archiever tool is working, or get the source > from CVS. > > [2] pyMinGW: > http://jove.prohosting.com/iwave/ipython/pyMinGW.html > -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list