[Mingw-users] Re: Visual C 7 compatibility

[Benjamin R. <Ben...@ep...>]

Hi Paul,


"Moore, Paul" <Pau...@at...> writes:
> Yes. One example isn that runtime types such as FILE* cannot be
> shared between the 2 runtime DLLs. Hence, DLLs using msvcrt, and a
> main program using msvcr7, cannot pass FILE* variables between them.

If you mean that the Python API uses compiler-defined structures in
their interfaces than the Python API has a problem (aka a "bug").
That would mean that you can only use the very version of the C
runtime upon which the Python developers have currently decided.  That
excludes *all* other compilers, including Borland, Cygwin, Watcom, ...

OTOH if you mean that your extension can not have an API that uses
compiler-defined structures, well that's just normal and not
Python-specific.  You should not do that, otherwise you get the
compiler lock-in that you requested.

> > Maybe there's a workaround.
> 
> Possibly (for example, avoiding FILE* in APIs). But I gather this
> isn't as easy as it seems at first...

You can (and should) usually just use opaque handles that have only
meaning for your own API.


so long, benny