I know this is a topic which has been discussed before (more than once). I'm just adding one more data point. Python.org currently uses VS2003's compiler for building the distributed Windows binaries for Python. Unfortunately, there's a nasty bug in the runtime libraries that support this compiler which causes Python to give the wrong answer when you ask what time it is in most US time zones for four weeks of the year (daylight saving time is observed in that country for four more weeks than those Microsoft's libraries think it is). Even more unfortunate, the patch Microsoft offers is not for the redistributable libraries directly, but for Visual Studio. Worse, Microsoft advises against applying the patch at all, implying that insufficient testing has taken place, urging instead that customers wait for a service pack for Visual Studio which corrects the bug. We've been waiting more than a year, without any indication from MS that this service pack will ever materialize, and it doesn't apply to non-development machines anyway. Every indication seems to point to effective abandonment by Microsoft of those who still use this version of the compiler.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/932299 We don't have conclusive evidence that later versions of Visual Studio are not affected by this bug, but the only KB article we have found for the bug is specific to C runtime library for the 2003 compiler. Any possibility of revisiting this question (upgrading to a more recent compiler for Windows builds of Python)? -- Bob Kline http://www.rksystems.com mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] _______________________________________________ Python-Dev mailing list Python-Dev@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-dev Unsubscribe: http://mail.python.org/mailman/options/python-dev/archive%40mail-archive.com
