On Fri, Feb 13, 2009 at 5:35 PM, <argo...@gmail.com> wrote: > When creating a Python binding to a C or C++ library, which is easier > to wrap, the C lib or the C++ one? Given a choice, if you had to > choose between using one of two libs, one written in C, the other in C+ > + -- both having approximately the same functionality -- which would > you rather deal with from your Python code? > > It would seem to me that there's fewer design considerations when > wrapping a library written in C; you just wrap the functions. However, > since Python supports OOP nicely, it might also be that wrapping C++ > code *could* also be staightforward... Are there many pitfalls when > having to map C++'s notion of OO to Python?
You're asking two separate questions here. (1) For Python bindings, is it easier to wrap C, or C++ libraries? As Daniel points out, C is easier to wrap because CPython itself is written in C, and C++ cannot be linked directly to C. (2) Is it easier to use C or C++ bindings from Python code? Interface-wise, the C++ bindings would be easier to work with at the Python level as they are object-oriented. In practice, C libraries are usually wrapped because that's easier to do. However, to compensate for their procedural interface, people often write another module on top of the raw Python bindings to expose a public interface that appears more object-oriented, and make the lower-level module internal/private. Cheers, Chris -- Follow the path of the Iguana... http://rebertia.com -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
