Newbie seeks help with COM? DLLs?

[Gordon McMillan]

Sam Hunting writes:

> Background: I'm operating in a VB/NT shop, but I want to introduce a
> Python solution for the sake of doing *extremely* rapid development
> of GUI widgets.

> We need to incorporate the widgets into an existing software product
> so that, for example, a Python-developed dialog will appear, into
> which the user will enter data, which is then passed back to the
> application.
> 
> Now here is where my newbie nature takes over, since I am very new
> to Python, and even newer to the VB/NT/Windows worlds -- how
> "incorporate"?
> 
> The software product understands DLLs, and also understands COM.
> I've had it suggested to me that the way to get where I need to do,
> is to turn the dialogs into COM servers, and then call them from the
> software application, which is the client.
> 
> (1) I worked through the "Quick Start to Server Side COM and
> Python", and registered the Hello World server successfully. Can
> anyone point me to some VB code that would enable me to test the
> test server?
> 
> (2) If the COM approach is not the right approach, can someone
> suggest a better one? And point me to some sample code that I can
> test, run, and improve to help me solve the problem?

You need http://www.robanal.demon.co.uk/demos/pyvb/index.html. (What 
you *really* need is Andy & Mark's book, but that'll take awhile.)

Assuming your client is VB, this seems the natural way to go. If it 
were C or C++, it might be easier through the Python's C API.

- Gordon