ENH: meson should detect gcc/clang if vswhere not available.. on windows. when installing from pip.

[Kreijstal]

Feature Type

• Adding new functionality to pandas

• Changing existing functionality in pandas

• Removing existing functionality in pandas

Problem Description

I wish pip could use the gcc or clang compilers when available

Feature Description

modify meson to accept mingw

Alternative Solutions

create an alternative pandas package

Additional Context

Backend subprocess exited when trying to invoke build_wheel

    | Command '['C:/Users/user/msys64/tmp/tmpbs764g4v/.venv/bin/python.exe', 'C:/Users/user/msys64/ucrt64/lib/python3.12/site-packages/pyproject_hooks/_in_process/_in_process.py', 'build_wheel', 'C:/Users/user/msys64/tmp/tmp0acl38em']' returned non-zero exit status 1.
    |
    | + meson setup C:/Users/user/msys64/tmp/tmpz163xc9a/pandas-2.3.3 C:/Users/user/msys64/tmp/tmpz163xc9a/pandas-2.3.3/.mesonpy-28c3468a -Dbuildtype=release -Db_ndebug=if-release -Db_vscrt=md --vsenv --native-file=C:/Users/user/msys64/tmp/tmpz163xc9a/pandas-2.3.3/.mesonpy-28c3468a/meson-python-native-file.ini
    | The Meson build system
    | Version: 1.9.1
    | Source dir: C:/Users/user/msys64/tmp/tmpz163xc9a/pandas-2.3.3
    | Build dir: C:/Users/user/msys64/tmp/tmpz163xc9a/pandas-2.3.3/.mesonpy-28c3468a
    | Build type: native build
    |
    | ../meson.build:2:0: ERROR: Could not find C:/Program Files (x86)/Microsoft Visual Studio/Installer/vswhere.exe
    |
    | A full log can be found at C:/Users/user/msys64/tmp/tmpz163xc9a/pandas-2.3.3/.mesonpy-28c3468a/meson-logs/meson-log.txt

Note: This error originates from the build backend, and is likely not a problem with poetry but one of the following issues with pandas (2.3.3)

  - not supporting PEP 517 builds
  - not specifying PEP 517 build requirements correctly
  - the build requirements are incompatible with your operating system or Python version
  - the build requirements are missing system dependencies (eg: compilers, libraries, headers).

You can verify this by running pip wheel --no-cache-dir --use-pep517 "pandas (==2.3.3)".

[Alvaro-Kothe]

It should be possible to compile with MinGW on Windows if we disable the --vsenv flag in pyproject.toml.

pandas/pyproject.toml

Lines 143 to 144 in 7bf6660

	[tool.meson-python.args]
	setup = ['--vsenv'] # For Windows

[Kreijstal]

It should be possible to compile with MinGW on Windows if we disable the --vsenv flag in pyproject.toml.

pandas/pyproject.toml

Lines 143 to 144 in 7bf6660

[tool.meson-python.args]
setup = ['--vsenv'] # For Windows

so the package must be patched for this to work? aka if I want it from pip we need an alternative package?

[Alvaro-Kothe]

so the package must be patched for this to work?

Yes. This flag makes Visual Studio required to compile on Windows. I don't know if, currently, it's possible to compile pandas with MinGW. Further investigations and patches are welcome.

[Kreijstal]

so the package must be patched for this to work?

Yes. This flag makes Visual Studio required to compile on Windows. I don't know if, currently, it's possible to compile pandas with MinGW. Further investigations and patches are welcome.

I guess we can make a fork of pandas, like pandas-mingw to accept this behaviour
however I would prefer to have a fallback rather than a different package for pandas

[Kreijstal]

I don't know if, currently, it's possible to compile pandas with MinGW. Further investigations and patches are welcome.

it must be
https://github.com/msys2/MINGW-packages/blob/master/mingw-w64-python-pandas/001-dont-search-for-vs.patch