Docs for new Windows zlib build procedure.

Misc/NEWS

@@ -13,7 +13,6 @@ Core language, builtins, and interpreter
 - Functions are now compared and hashed by identity, not by value, since
   the func_code attribute is writable.
 
-
 Standard library
 
 - random.py is now self-contained, and offers all the functionality of
@@ -26,6 +25,12 @@ Standard library
   each thread, then using .jumpahead() to force each instance to use a
   non-overlapping segment of the full period.
 
+Windows changes
+
+- Build procedure:  the zlib project is built in a different way that
+  ensures the zlib header files used can no longer get out of synch with
+  the zlib binary used.  See PCbuild\readme.txt for details.
+
 
 What's New in Python 2.1 alpha 1?
 =================================

Modules/zlibmodule.c

@@ -1,14 +1,7 @@
 /* zlibmodule.c -- gzip-compatible data compression */
 /* See http://www.info-zip.org/pub/infozip/zlib/ */
 
-/* *** Notes for Windows Users ***
+/* Windows users:  read Python's PCbuild\readme.txt */
-   * Download the source distribution as referenced above.
-   * Unpack the distribution such that a "..\..\zlib-1.1.3" directory is created
-     relative to the "pcbuild" directory.
-   * Build this "zlib" project.  Via from MSVC magic, the correct zlib makefile will
-     be run, and "..\..\zlib-1.1.3\zlib.lib" will be built before zlib.pyd.
-   *** End of notes for Windows users ***
-*/
 
 
 #include "Python.h"

PCbuild/readme.txt

@@ -69,12 +69,17 @@ _tkinter
     Be sure to install everything, including the Tcl/Tk header files.
 
 zlib
-    Python wrapper for the zlib compression library.  Requires
+    NOTE: This procedure is new (& simpler, & safer) for 2.1a2.
-        http://www.winimage.com/zLibDll/zlib133dll.zip
+    Python wrapper for the zlib compression library.  Get the source code
-    and
+    for version 1.1.3 from a convenient mirror at:
-        ftp://ftp.uu.net/graphics/png/src/zlib133.zip
+        http://www.info-zip.org/pub/infozip/zlib/
-    Unpack the former into dist\zlib113dll.
+    Unpack into dist\zlib-1.1.3.
-    Uppack the latter into dist\zlib113.
+    A custom pre-link step in the zlib project settings should manage to
+    build zlib-1.1.3\zlib.lib by magic before zlib.pyd (or zlib_d.pyd) is
+    linked in PCbuild\.
+    However, the zlib project is not smart enough to remove anything under
+    zlib-1.1.3\ when you do a clean, so if you want to rebuild zlib.lib
+    you need to clean up zlib-1.1.3\ by hand.
 
 bsddb
     Python wrapper for the BSD database 1.85.  Requires db.1.85.win32.zip,