💚 Replace MinGW by clang - #10

Even if we change gcc to clang, all program compiled by gcc to programs compiled by clang, it still output .dll.a not .lib.

$ 7z l pyrime-0.2.3-cp314-cp314-win_amd64.whl|rg api.cp
19:2026-07-01 08:37:28 .....       177152        70661  pyrime/api.cp314-win_amd64.pyd
20:2026-07-01 08:37:28 .....         1536          414  pyrime/api.cp314-win_amd64.dll.a

However, clang support to output .lib: Such as https://github.com/rime/librime/releases/download/1.17.0/rime-33e7814-Windows-clang-x64.7z

$ 7z l rime-33e7814-Windows-clang-x64.7z|rg dist/lib/rime
32:2026-06-05 19:42:26 ....A       301604               dist/lib/rime.lib
38:2026-06-05 19:42:26 ....A      5289472               dist/lib/rime.dll

I doubt clang has an option to decide output .lib or .dll.a .

I tried following piece of code in src/pyrime/__init__.py

if sys.platform == "win32":
    lib_dir = os.environ.get("LIBRIME_LIB_DIR")
    if lib_dir and os.path.isdir(lib_dir):
        os.add_dll_directory(lib_dir)

Just put official rime.dll for MSVC in path LIBRIME_LIB_DIR. Seemed work well. Not know the effect of .lib or .dll.a, but .dll seemed to be the key.

The convention on Windows is to pack .dll with software releases (whl here). You are trying to do so, right?

I know your meaning, if user doesn't install librime, it will not work because there is no any librime. In that situation, user must

1. Install librime
2. os.add_dll_directory() by themselves.

May I interpret your words in following manner:

It is the user (front-end)'s responsibility to invoke os.add_dll_directory() on Windows, but not pyrime's.

However, this requires the front-end to set directory before importing packages from pyrime. i.e., to write the script like

import os
os.add_dll_directory(some_dir_containing_rime_dll)

from pyrime.api import Traits
trait = Traits(...)

But in most cases, people are used to importing packages before other code. This will lead to exception of DLL not found. That's why I was adding the path setting in pyrime's init.

Just my two cents.

import os
os.add_dll_directory(some_dir_containing_rime_dll)

I think a better approach would be to set the PATH environment variable to include the directory containing the RIME DLLs before running the Python script. Refer 0fc2140