Building 'Modules/_cursesmodule.c' for Win32

[gvanem]

Compiling Modules/_cursesmodule.c using clang-cl reveals a stupid bug here:

cpython/Modules/_cursesmodule.c

Lines 1958 to 1963 in eef2349

	#if defined(MS_WINDOWS)
	char *buffer[100];
	UINT cp;
	cp = GetConsoleOutputCP();
	if (cp != 0) {
	PyOS_snprintf(buffer, sizeof(buffer), "cp%u", cp);

and consequently a compile-error:

Modules/_cursesmodule.c(1963,27): error: incompatible pointer types passing 'char *[100]' to parameter of type 'char *'
      [-Wincompatible-pointer-types]
 1963 |             PyOS_snprintf(buffer, sizeof(buffer), "cp%u", cp);
      |                           ^~~~~~
./Include\pyerrors.h(324,37): note: passing argument to parameter 'str' here
  324 | PyAPI_FUNC(int) PyOS_snprintf(char *str, size_t size, const char  *format, ...)
      |                                     ^

Surely it should be:

--- a/Modules/_cursesmodule.c 2026-07-23 18:30:17
+++ b/Modules/_cursesmodule.c 2026-07-24 11:06:43
@@ -1956,7 +1956,7 @@
 {
     if (encoding == NULL) {
 #if defined(MS_WINDOWS)
-        char *buffer[100];
+        char buffer[100];
         UINT cp;
         cp = GetConsoleOutputCP();
         if (cp != 0) {

I tried to build with this Curses port: https://github.com/Bill-Gray/PDCursesMod.git
but eventually gave up on all the missing functions.

Apart from a pip install windows-curses, it seems it would be a major task to get
_curses*.pyd to link and work on Windows (from a git-build).
Any pointers?

Linked PRs

• gh-154587: Fix Windows buffer declaration in _cursesmodule #154609
• [3.15] gh-154587: Fix Windows buffer declaration in _cursesmodule (GH-154609) #154931
• [3.14] gh-154587: Fix Windows buffer declaration in _cursesmodule (GH-154609) #154932
• [3.13] gh-154587: Fix Windows buffer declaration in _cursesmodule (GH-154609) #154933

[gvanem]

Apart from a pip install windows-curses, it seems it would be a major task to get
_curses*.pyd to link and work on Windows (from a git-build).

Edit: strike the above, apart from the compile-error, it was dead easy after I figured out the missing -DHAVE_x.

[serhiy-storchaka]

FYI, last few week I worked on adding support of curses on Windows. It included the identical fix. Will publish the results soon.