Thanks for the insights, Steve. More below...
On 24.09.2014 18:52, Steve Dower wrote: > M.-A. Lemburg wrote: >> >> I'd rather be conservative here and wait for another Python release before >> switching VC versions. There are a few important questions that need answers >> before we can consider a new VC version: >> >> * Will there be free versions available ? >> >> * Will those free editions include the 64-bit compilers ? >> >> * Will those free editions include the optimizing compilers ? >> >> * Is there a roadmap for how long these free versions will remain >> officially available ? >> >> * Are there issues compiling 3rd party libraries with it ? >> >> E.g. the numeric and science stacks, the web stacks, >> the deployment stacks, etc. >> >> * What license terms will the new version have ? >> >> E.g. GPL compatibility issues, weird exceptions, >> >> * What will the pricing structure look like ? >> >> While core devs will get free MSDN licenses, most other 3rd party >> providers will have to buy licenses for the compiler, unless >> they can use the free versions. >> >> An alternative would be targeting VC13 instead of VC14, in case it has good >> answers for the above questions. It's been around for a year now, so there >> should be more experience available with this version. > > (Nit - it's actually VC12 a.k.a. "Visual Studio 2013" - VC13 was skipped. > This is what happens when you have separate engineering and marketing teams > :) ) Ah, ok :-) > I don't have good answers to all of these yet, but none of them are going to > be any worse than for VC12. I've forwarded these questions to the people on > the VC team who do get to choose the answers, and while I'm not expecting to > hear specifics back from them, they are at least aware of the concerns and > how important their product is to our community. > > There will be free versions available, but I don't know what format they'll > be in. Those free editions should include identical compilers to the paid > ones - the cases where that hasn't been true have been bugs or due to > assumptions that were proven to be incorrect. > > The main improvement in this version is that all versions from VC14 should be > binary compatible, and so there will always be a free compiler, but it may be > VC15/16/etc. and not VC14. That's good news. > There are certainly issues with 3rd party libraries, largely because all > projects have a tendency to take dependencies on compiler/library internals. > OpenSSL, for example, redefines the stdout/in/err macros based on the VC > version, but the new definitions are no longer valid with VC14, and so they > are fixing that. Python itself has a few issues that I have already fixed in > my branch. There will certainly be other issues, but an advantage of starting > early is that bugs in the compiler itself can be fixed in the compiler. > > The license should not change significantly from previous versions. GPL > incompatibilities are because the GPL wants to be incompatible with licenses > based on different ideologies - AFAIK there's never been anything in the VC > licenses preventing whatever redistribution license you like. As example: there once was a special clause which explicitly disallowed "Excluded License[s]" to be used together with VC redistibutable files. I think this is no longer the case, but there may be new things in the EULAs. > Part of my improvements to /PCBuild will help avoid the need for Visual > Studio entirely, but the free versions should always be sufficient for > building and debugging. I have no insight or control over the pricing > structure. Cheers, -- Marc-Andre Lemburg eGenix.com Professional Python Services directly from the Source (#1, Sep 24 2014) >>> Python Projects, Consulting and Support ... http://www.egenix.com/ >>> mxODBC.Zope/Plone.Database.Adapter ... http://zope.egenix.com/ >>> mxODBC, mxDateTime, mxTextTools ... http://python.egenix.com/ ________________________________________________________________________ 2014-09-27: PyDDF Sprint 2014 ... 3 days to go 2014-09-30: Python Meeting Duesseldorf ... 6 days to go ::::: Try our mxODBC.Connect Python Database Interface for free ! :::::: eGenix.com Software, Skills and Services GmbH Pastor-Loeh-Str.48 D-40764 Langenfeld, Germany. CEO Dipl.-Math. Marc-Andre Lemburg Registered at Amtsgericht Duesseldorf: HRB 46611 http://www.egenix.com/company/contact/ _______________________________________________ Python-Dev mailing list Python-Dev@python.org https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-dev Unsubscribe: https://mail.python.org/mailman/options/python-dev/archive%40mail-archive.com
