You can compile C code using only the standard library, and it will work on every platform and with every Python version (assuming you actually have a C compiler available). Check out the distutils.ccompiler module which Python uses to compile C extension modules. A simple example:

// main.c

#include <stdio.h>

int main() {
    printf("Hello world!\n");
    return(0);
}

Compilation script:

# build.py
from distutils.ccompiler import new_compiler

if __name__ == '__main__':
    compiler = new_compiler()
    compiler.compile(['main.c'])
    compiler.link_executable(['main.o'], 'main')

Everything else (include paths, library paths, custom flags or link args or macros) can be passed via various configuration options. Check out the above link to the module documentation for more info.