The step of generating a MinGW import library for Python releases is very rarely used, forces us to take extra build dependencies, and is better handled by the end-users who need it.

We will drop the libpython38.a file from the main distribution, and update the docs to contain the commands necessary (users who are using MinGW will have these tools easily available):

gendef python38.dll > tmp.def
dlltool --dllname python38.dll --def tmp.def --output-lib libpython38.a

Here is where Anaconda have been doing this themselves, rather than relying on our distributed file: https://github.com/AnacondaRecipes/aggregate/blob/master/libpython-feedstock/recipe/bld.bat

We also heard that the regex module no longer relies on this: https://mail.python.org/archives/list/python-dev@python.org/message/A7IXOTARTYJUNSCFAU3YY2VOVILC4EBY/

A few people do regularly use this file, according to https://mobile.twitter.com/zooba/status/1139661637521031168 which is why including the instructions and porting notes is important. I haven't heard from any of them that they would have trouble running the above commands themselves.