This subsection describes the necessary steps to use Distutils with the
Borland C++ compiler version 5.5.
First you have to know that the Borland's object file format(OMF) is
different from what is used by the Python version you can download
from the Python Web site. (Python is built with Microsoft Visual C++,
which uses COFF as object file format.) For this reason you have to
convert Python's library python20.lib into the Borland format.
You can do this as follows:
coff2omf python20.lib python20_bcpp.lib
The coff2omf program comes with the Borland compiler. The file
python20.lib is in the Libs directory of your Python
installation. If your extension uses other libraries (zlib,...) you
have to convert them too.
The converted files have to reside in the same directories as the
normal libraries.
How does Distutils manage to use these libraries with their changed
names? If the extension needs a library (eg. foo) Distutils
checks first if it finds a library with suffix _bcpp
(eg. foo_bcpp.lib) and then uses this library. In the case it
doesn't find such a special library it uses the default name
(foo.lib.)1
To let Distutils compile your extension with Borland C++ you now have
to type:
python setup.py build --compiler=bcpp
If you want to use the Borland C++ compiler as default, you should
consider to write it in your personal or system-wide configuration
file for Distutils (see section 6.)
This section describes the necessary steps to use Distutils with the
GNU C/C++ compilers in their Cygwin and MinGW32
distributions.2
** For a Python which was built with Cygwin, all should work without
any of these following steps. **
For these compilers we have to create some special libraries too.
This task is more complex as for Borland's C++, because there is no
program to convert the library (inclusive the references on data
structures.)
The resulting library has to be placed in the same directory as
python20.lib. (Should be the libs directory under your
Python installation directory.)
If your extension uses other libraries (zlib,...) you might
have to convert them too.
The converted files have to reside in the same directories as the normal
libraries do.
To let Distutils compile your extension with Cygwin you now have to type
python setup.py build --compiler=cygwin
and for Cygwin in no-cygwin mode3 or for MinGW32 type:
python setup.py build --compiler=mingw32
If you want to use any of these options/compilers as default, you should
consider to write it in your personal or system-wide configuration file
for Distutils (see section 6.)
Converted import libraries in Cygwin/MinGW32 and Borland format,
and a script to create the registry entries needed for Distutils
to locate the built Python.