Add disclaimer about MinGW compat in distutils docs (#6007). Patch by Chris Lambacher.
diff --git a/Doc/install/index.rst b/Doc/install/index.rst
index 0336551..2692bd2 100644
--- a/Doc/install/index.rst
+++ b/Doc/install/index.rst
@@ -929,15 +929,34 @@
GNU C / Cygwin / MinGW
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
-These instructions only apply if you're using a version of Python prior to
-2.4.1 with a MinGW prior to 3.0.0 (with binutils-2.13.90-20030111-1).
-
This section describes the necessary steps to use Distutils with the GNU C/C++
compilers in their Cygwin and MinGW distributions. [#]_ For a Python interpreter
that was built with Cygwin, everything should work without any of these
following steps.
-These compilers require some special libraries. This task is more complex than
+Not all extensions can be built with MinGW or Cygwin, but many can. Extensions
+most likely to not work are those that use C++ or depend on Microsoft Visual C
+extensions.
+
+To let Distutils compile your extension with Cygwin you have to type::
+
+ python setup.py build --compiler=cygwin
+
+and for Cygwin in no-cygwin mode [#]_ or for MinGW type::
+
+ python setup.py build --compiler=mingw32
+
+If you want to use any of these options/compilers as default, you should
+consider writing it in your personal or system-wide configuration file for
+Distutils (see section :ref:`inst-config-files`.)
+
+Older Versions of Python and MinGW
+""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
+The following instructions only apply if you're using a version of Python
+inferior to 2.4.1 with a MinGW inferior to 3.0.0 (with
+binutils-2.13.90-20030111-1).
+
+These compilers require some special libraries. This task is more complex than
for Borland's C++, because there is no program to convert the library. First
you have to create a list of symbols which the Python DLL exports. (You can find
a good program for this task at
@@ -967,18 +986,6 @@
them too. The converted files have to reside in the same directories as the
normal libraries do.
-To let Distutils compile your extension with Cygwin you now have to type ::
-
- python setup.py build --compiler=cygwin
-
-and for Cygwin in no-cygwin mode [#]_ or for MinGW type::
-
- python setup.py build --compiler=mingw32
-
-If you want to use any of these options/compilers as default, you should
-consider to write it in your personal or system-wide configuration file for
-Distutils (see section :ref:`inst-config-files`.)
-
.. seealso::