Moving SciPy to Meson meant finding a different Fortran compiler on Windows, which was particularly tricky to pull off for conda-forge. This blog tells the story about how things looked pretty grim for the Python 3.12 release, and how things ended up working out just in the nick of time.

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Fortran compilers are still used in many places due to their historical significance and the performance benefits they offer. The challenges in Python packaging led to the creation of conda-forge, a platform that aims to address the complexities and issues in package distribution. Building SciPy for Python 3.12 on Windows required the use of Fortran code and faced obstacles due to the lack of free Fortran compilers and compatibility issues with the build tools.

The 'eu' in eucatastrophe – Why SciPy builds for Python 3.12 on Windows are a minor miracle