> IMHO, it is important that people are able to compile python with
> VS2010 with minimum fuss.  Not everyone has access to older compilers
> and forward compatibility shouldn't be that hard.

Not sure what you mean by "forward compatibility". You cannot build
extension modules with a different version of MSVC than you built
Python with; that's inherent in the way the MS CRT works. This means
that Python 2.7 and 3.2 will continue to use VS 2008 until their
end-of-life, and extensions module authors will continue to need
VS 2008. Getting the old compilers isn't that hard, either - the
express edition of VS 2008 is still available for download.

So whatever "forward compatibiltiy" is in this context - I think
it is extremely hard.

> What is there keeping this from moving forwards?

Brian Curtin has volunteered to work on this. Maybe he can comment
on the status; there is little point in people duplicating efforts
(except perhaps for publishing hg clones that add project files
for the older branches, for people who want that).