[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > I am prompted to make these inquiries after seeing the following link > to ctypes: > > http://docs.python.org/lib/module-ctypes.html > > in which ctypes is described as a foreign function library. > > What is the definition of "foreign function library"? > Is the concept different from a "package"? > Is the concept different from a "module"? > Neither. If you have a library, completely unrelated to Python, but you would like to make calls into it from Python, there are several ways to proceed.
(A good example of such a library is the OpenGL library: C:/WINDOWS/SYSTEM32/opengl32.dll.) You can craft an extension to Python, written in C perhaps and linked to the DLL in question, that provides functions which can be called from Python and which make the appropriate calls into the DLL. (Several products help with building of such an extension module, SWIG being the one I've used.) A newer alternative to building such extensions is ctypes. If you can discern (from the documentation) the exact calling parameters footprint to a function in a DLL, then ctypes can directly call that function with your parameters. This is done directly in Python and ctypes without the need for building any extension module. Gary Herron > Thank you. > > -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
