[Python-Dev] Should Python compile as C++? (original) (raw)

Guido van Rossum guido@python.org
Tue, 05 Feb 2002 01:34:19 -0500

I'm currently doing a native mingw32 port of Python, and I've hit the ugly "initializer is not a constant" problem mentioned in the FAQ. Hmm, looks like I have three options:

1 Fix the Python sources in the Object/ directory and initalize the structs in a seperate initobjects function 2 compile Python with a C++ compiler 3 fix the mingw32 compiler When trying option 2, I recognized that a lot of Python's source is not valid ANSI C++. There are even variable names like "class" and "new". There are of course less obvious issues when trying to make the source compile as C++, in particular a lot more casts are needed. If it's just that Python is supposed to compile as C++ but it hasn't been tested for a while, I could do the necessary fixes and submit a patch. But if that's a new idea, I don't know if fixing it now makes sense. Because I plan to submit the required changes as a patch when the port is ready, I'd like to know if you'd accept a patch for option #1.

Sounds to me like the Mingw32 compiler is not ANSI compatible. I don't want to have to change the source to accommodate a broken compiler that a very small minority of users want to use. So I am against #1.

We never said that our .c files would be valid C++ (.h files is a different story) so I think #2 is not an option.

I vote for #3 -- if enough software can't compiled with mingw32 the compiler will be fixed, as it should, and I'm happy to help encourage this.

--Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/)