title: How to configure python cffi library to use mingw?
body: <p>Attempting to call cffi.FFI.verify() on windows will produce this error:</p>
  
  <pre><code>distutils.errors.DistutilsPlatformError: Unable to find vcvarsall.bat
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I want to use mingw to compile instead of msvc. I tried to make distutils use mingw by creating c:\Python27\Lib\distutils\distutils.cfg  with</p>
  
  <pre><code>[build]
  compiler = mingw32
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>but this doesn't seem to affect cffi, I still get vcvarsall.bat missing error.</p>
  
  <p>So how can I make cffi use gcc/mingw (or in general other C compiler)?</p>