Class DistutilsPlatformError

              object --+            
                       |            
exceptions.BaseException --+        
                           |        
        exceptions.Exception --+    
                               |    
                  DistutilsError --+
                                   |
                                  DistutilsPlatformError

We don't know how to do something on the current platform (but we do know how to do it on some platform) -- eg. trying to compile C files on a platform not supported by a CCompiler subclass.