This addresses missing statements for recognizing the Mingw compiler in 
pyport.h, needed to build several extension modules on Windows using 
Mingw. I will first explain the background, then indicate what needs to 
be changed and end with some pointers to "related work".

Pyport.h of Python 2.5 and 2.6 (I do not have other versions to check) 
addresses an issue with Cygwin's gcc by preventing the declaration of 
"__declspec(dllimport)" for function definitions (using the PyAPI_FUNC
(RTYPE) makro), relying on the compiler's auto-import definition 
instead, because the compiler would not otherwise throw an "initializer 
element is not constant" error when using e.g. PyObject_GenericGetAttr 
in a PyTypeObject declaration of a C/C++ extension module (more 
generally, whenever an imported Python API function is used as a 
constant).
Python 2.6.2 (r262:71605) and Python 2.5.4 (r254:67916) do not check 
for the Mingw compiler in pyport.h, although Mingw behaves the same as 
the Cygwin version, at least regarding the "__declspec" declaration.

To fix that, each check for __CYGWIN__ in pyport.h should also check 
for __MINGW32___ to behave the same way. svn.python.org currently does 
not reply, so I can not create a patch against the trunk nor check 
whether this issue has already been addressed.

Issue 5046 included a patch to pyport.h fixing this, but it has been 
rejected due to other suggested changes that were not mature.
http://recipes.gobolinux.org/r/?list=Python&ver=3.1-
r1&file=arm/20061116160247-
bf48b-7db78fe2f80b3137ce349cf4314364768555ff50.gz.diff suggests the 
same change.
http://www.indashpc.org/vbullettin/viewtopic.php?p=5003#5003 gives some 
more background information on how I found and fixed the problem.
An internet search for "python initializer element is not constant" 
shows that numerous people have been encountering this problem when 
trying to build a python extension module.

svn.python.org seems to be up again.  Could you create a patch?

Hello!

Thanks, you're right. I have created a patch against the latest SVN 
revision (75557) of branches/release26-maint/Include/pyport.h. The 
patch also applies fine to trunk/Include/pyport.h.
As it applies to both versions, I have created the patch directly from 
inside the Include directory rather than from the svn root.

As I am abroad for a couple of months and do not have access to my 
Windows machine, I currently cannot test the patch (i.e. compile Python 
on Windows using Mingw), but I successfully compiled the PyMedia 
package using Mingw and the modified pyport.h.

Please let me know if you have any questions or remarks!

A tip about versions: Bugs are fixed on the active branch, py3k (which will become 3.2), then backported to 3.1 and 2.7.  Security fixes go into 2.5 and 2.6 too.

Version against current (2013-02-02) source.

new patch - improved version with support for build of core modules