Created attachment 151645 [details]
Python detection for Windows/MSys

configure script is 100% *nix-oriented:
1) Thinks that python executable lives in */bin
2) Thinks that python keeps includes in */include/python${PYTHON_VERSION}
3) Thinks that python keeps import libraries in */lib
4) Expects all Python-related paths to have slashes ('/')
All are false on Windows:
1) Python executable is in */ (for example - C:/Python26/python.exe , not C:/Python26/bin/python.exe)
2) Python keeps includes in */include (without python${PYTHON_VERSION} component)
3) Python keeps its import libraries (the ones for embedding) in */libs
4) Python itself always provides paths with backslashes.

How to fix:
1) Check for */python in addition to */bin/python . Also don't rely on "test -x" to fail when file is not executable, it doesn't on MSys!
2) Check for include files in */include
3) Check for import libraries in */libs
4) This might be partially fixable by user providing correct Python prefix  with slashes via --with-python (such as --with-python=C:/Python26). For that to work, python executable check that does test -x $with_python must come AFTER check that does test -x $with_python/python.exe , because test -x $with_python will always succeed, even though $with_python is a directory (and is not executable).

Patch for configure.in and python/Makefile.am is attached.

P.S. don't forget --with-threads=native