Re: Python recompile

On 11/03/2025 17:23, bart wrote:

On 11/03/2025 15:06, David Brown wrote:

On 11/03/2025 15:24, bart wrote:

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To build open source projects, I'm happy to use an existing C compiler. I'm NOT happy about bending over backwards to use CYGWIN, MSYS2 or WSL because the developers insist on forcing their Linux dependencies down my throat.
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Developers can do what they like. But they shouldn't inflict their choices on other people, especially those using other OSes.
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I have not paid a lot of attention to this thread.  But I am curious here - who do you think is /forcing/ you to compile their code?

 OK, tell me where to get ready-made DLLs for GMP and LIBFFI that I can can use on Windows. If that's not possible then there is no choice (other than not to use them at all, which is what I do).
 

So do you think that those projects are /forcing/ you to use their code?   Are the folks who wrote GMP responsible for /your/ insistence on using /their/ code, without using additional tools or libraries?  You want to use what probably amounts to hundreds of person-years of specialised work, for free, and you are not willing to go to the effort of downloading and installing a few other bits of /free/ software first, in order to be able to follow freely available instructions found online?
And you blame the GMP and LIBFFI for all this?  They are, after all, holding a gun to your head and insisting that you use their software while viscously and maliciously refusing to re-write their code to remove traces of code that rely on the platforms they use themselves.
Or maybe it is now /my/ responsibility to find these dll's for you?
Well, you are in luck :
<https://packages.msys2.org/packages/mingw-w64-ucrt-x86_64-gmp>
<https://packages.msys2.org/packages/mingw-w64-ucrt-x86_64-libffi>
The compressed tarballs include the dlls.

  Why do you think it is appropriate for /you/ to demand that people writing open source projects (often as voluntary work) should go out of their way to make /your/ life easier?

 It would make everyone's life easier. Especially those who struggle to build that stuff on Windows.

No, it would make /your/ life easier.  The half-dozen other people who might want to compile gmp on Windows are probably quite capable of installing mys2 and mingw64 (or Cygwin, or WSL, or other preferred solution), and won't see a problem with doing so.  They will almost certainly already be familiar with the pre-compiled versions that are easily installed.

 Windows is getting an unfairly bad reputation for building applications; why do you think that is?

I don't think its reputation /is/ unfair.
Equally, I think it is often a challenge to get software that is made specifically for Windows, to build or run on Linux.  Why are you complaining about an open source project that is based on POSIX and somewhat inconvenient to build on Windows, but not about Windows projects that are inconvenient to build on Linux?

It's almost like the people on Linux deliberately keep their build systems Linux-centric just to maintain that myth!

When GMP was started, Windows was solidly 16-bit.  The scientific, mathematical and engineering world used Unix of various flavours - Windows was for playing Minesweeper and writing crap with Word, and Linux was just announced on Usenet.
It is almost like people use the systems they want to use, and put little effort into support for systems they have no interest in and their users are not interested in.  This goes both ways - it is at least as much a "Windows thing" as it is a "*nix thing".

 

 Why are you trying to inflict /your/ choices on them?

 

<snip whining that doesn't answer the question>
The world does not revolve around you.  Get over it.
If you want to use GMP on Windows, install mingw64 - or put the effort in yourself to make it compile with whatever weird and limited tools you feel are so wonderful.