Pulled the MSVC++-specific hackery out to a new method, 'prelink_hook()',

and added (empty) 'precompile_hook()' for symmetry.  One can envision
a much more elaborate hook mechanism, but this looks like it'll do for
now.

Lib/distutils/command/build_ext.py

@@ -160,7 +160,7 @@ class build_ext (Command):
 
         # 'self.extensions', as supplied by setup.py, is a list of
         # Extension instances.  See the documentation for Extension (in
-        # distutils.core) for details.
+        # distutils.extension) for details.
         # 
         # For backwards compatibility with Distutils 0.8.2 and earlier, we
         # also allow the 'extensions' list to be a list of tuples:
@@ -395,6 +395,11 @@ class build_ext (Command):
             if os.environ.has_key('CFLAGS'):
                 extra_args.extend(string.split(os.environ['CFLAGS']))
                 
+            # Run any platform/compiler-specific hooks needed before
+            # compiling (currently none, but any hypothetical subclasses
+            # might find it useful to override this).
+            self.precompile_hook()
+
             objects = self.compiler.compile (sources,
                                              output_dir=self.build_temp,
                                              #macros=macros,
@@ -409,6 +414,28 @@ class build_ext (Command):
                 objects.extend (ext.extra_objects)
             extra_args = ext.extra_link_args
 
+            # Run any platform/compiler-specific hooks needed between
+            # compiling and linking (currently needed only on Windows).
+            self.prelink_hook()
+
+            self.compiler.link_shared_object (
+                objects, ext_filename, 
+                libraries=ext.libraries,
+                library_dirs=ext.library_dirs,
+                runtime_library_dirs=ext.runtime_library_dirs,
+                extra_postargs=extra_args,
+                debug=self.debug)
+
+    # build_extensions ()
+
+
+    # -- Hooks ---------------------------------------------------------
+
+    def precompile_hook (self):
+        pass
+
+    def prelink_hook (self):
+
         # XXX this is a kludge!  Knowledge of specific compilers or
         # platforms really doesn't belong here; in an ideal world, the
         # CCompiler interface would provide access to everything in a
@@ -445,16 +472,11 @@ class build_ext (Command):
             self.mkpath (os.path.dirname (implib_file))
         # if MSVC
 
-            self.compiler.link_shared_object (
-                objects, ext_filename, 
-                libraries=ext.libraries,
-                library_dirs=ext.library_dirs,
-                runtime_library_dirs=ext.runtime_library_dirs,
-                extra_postargs=extra_args,
-                debug=self.debug)
+    # prelink_hook ()
 
-    # build_extensions ()
 
+    # -- Name generators -----------------------------------------------
+    # (extension names, filenames, whatever)
 
     def get_ext_fullname (self, ext_name):
         if self.package is None:
@@ -463,6 +485,11 @@ class build_ext (Command):
             return self.package + '.' + ext_name
 
     def get_ext_filename (self, ext_name):
+        """Convert the name of an extension (eg. "foo.bar") into the name
+        of the file from which it will be loaded (eg. "foo/bar.so", or
+        "foo\bar.pyd").
+        """
+
         from distutils import sysconfig
         ext_path = string.split (ext_name, '.')
         # extensions in debug_mode are named 'module_d.pyd' under windows