This thread is getting so long it may break. But I don't want to unilaterally bifurcate the discussion. So I'll post here. I am preparing to selftest bzr-svn on Windows. The head of lp:bzr-svn seems to require a later subvertpy than provided in the 1.16 installer for Windows. (No surprise!) So grabbed the head of lp:subertpy and am trying to install it on WinXP. First, the dependencies: I think I have correctly installed BerkeleyDB, libintl and scn-win32 with the dev libs. I have set environment variables: SVN_BDB=C:\Documents and Settings\martitza\scratch\db4-win32-4.4.20 SVN_DEV=C:\Documents and Settings\martitza\scratch\BRANCHES\svn-win32-1.5.6 SVN_LIBINTL=C:\Documents and Settings\martitza\scratch\svn-win32-libintl And when I run setup.py install, I get C:\Documents and Settings\martitza\Desktop\BRANCHES\subvertpy>python .\setup.py install running install running build running build_py creating build creating build\lib.win32-2.5 creating build\lib.win32-2.5\subvertpy copying subvertpy\delta.py -> build\lib.win32-2.5\subvertpy copying subvertpy\marshall.py -> build\lib.win32-2.5\subvertpy copying subvertpy\properties.py -> build\lib.win32-2.5\subvertpy copying subvertpy\ra.py -> build\lib.win32-2.5\subvertpy copying subvertpy\ra_svn.py -> build\lib.win32-2.5\subvertpy copying subvertpy\server.py -> build\lib.win32-2.5\subvertpy copying subvertpy\__init__.py -> build\lib.win32-2.5\subvertpy creating build\lib.win32-2.5\subvertpy\tests copying subvertpy\tests\test_client.py -> build\lib.win32-2.5\subvertpy\tests copying subvertpy\tests\test_core.py -> build\lib.win32-2.5\subvertpy\tests copying subvertpy\tests\test_delta.py -> build\lib.win32-2.5\subvertpy\tests copying subvertpy\tests\test_marshall.py -> build\lib.win32-2.5\subvertpy\tests copying subvertpy\tests\test_properties.py -> build\lib.win32-2.5\subvertpy\tests copying subvertpy\tests\test_ra.py -> build\lib.win32-2.5\subvertpy\tests copying subvertpy\tests\test_repos.py -> build\lib.win32-2.5\subvertpy\tests copying subvertpy\tests\test_server.py -> build\lib.win32-2.5\subvertpy\tests copying subvertpy\tests\test_wc.py -> build\lib.win32-2.5\subvertpy\tests copying subvertpy\tests\__init__.py -> build\lib.win32-2.5\subvertpy\tests running build_ext error: Python was built with Visual Studio 2003; extensions must be built with a compiler than can generate compatible binaries. Visual Studio 2003 was not found on this system. If you have Cygwin installed, you can try compiling with MingW32, by passing "-c mingw32" to setup.py. So my question is... Can I install subvertpy without building it? I am trying this on a WinXP box with no dev tools, precisely to simulate the end-user expereince in a neutral way. Thanks! -M