[Cython] build cython-devel on Windows fails if MSVC not available

[Robert Bradshaw]

On Nov 17, 2008, at 9:05 AM, Stefan Behnel wrote:

> Lisandro Dalcin wrote:
>> I tried to build && install cython-devel on Windows XP, I do not have
>> MSVC installed. All went fine, but compiling extension modules
>> (Scanners, Scanning, Parsing, Visitor) failed bad because the MSVC
>> compiler was not available.
>>
>> Do it make sense to fix this by printing a warning and go on if the
>> extension building fails for ever reason?
>
> We already gracefully handle the case that the Cython compilation  
> fails,
> so, yes, that would be nice. It's harder to do, though, as it happens
> inside the setup() call. Maybe we can figure out before-hand if a  
> compiler
> is available, or just default to not compiling on Windows.

I'm not sure the best way to check for compiler presence, but it  
seems compiling should be the default as 99% of the users who use  
Cython will be using it with a compiler (otherwise, what's the point?).

>> Unless a user actually open and take a look at setup.py, there is no
>> way to discover the '--no-cython-compile' flag.
>
> Yes, a good help message would be good.

+1

Robert