VMware/Win4Lin/Wine + Linux... and Python?

[M.-A. Lemburg]

"Robert W. Cunningham" wrote:
> 
> With at least three ways to run Windows applications simultaneously with
> Linux applications, it seems to me there may be a need and/or
> opportunity to improve the connectivity and interface between the two
> worlds.  And I suspect Python may be just the tool to do it.
> 
> ...
>
> But is there a way to get instances of Python on both platforms talking
> to each other?  Of course, a socket could be opened and data shuttled
> back and forth, but that will be fairly slow and demand a fair amount of
> overhead.  Has there been any work done on a higher-level
> Python-to-Python interface?

You could use shared memory for the task. What methods are
implementable really depends on the architecture used by the
different WinXX-emulators. I would suspect Unix domain sockets
to be a fairly portable and fast solution, but then WinXX only
supports TCP/IP sockets. Pipes might also work (I think OS/2
used these for the communication  OS/2<->DOS and OS/2<->Win3.1).

> ...
>
> I have already dangled the idea before Trelos, the makers of Win4Lin,
> and they are definitely excited by the possibilities.  Plus, with
> Win4Lin being a commercial product, an inter-OS Python interface would
> allow Trelos to expose interfaces without having to give away any of
> their code (or revenue).  And this is one group that sure seems to be
> earning their money, even given their unfortunate lack of support for
> Open Source.  Python may well be the wedge needed to open that door.

This idea seems to be getting common around commercial
vendors: they wrap their internal C API using SWIG or
something similar and then publish the Python API for others
to hook into. As a nice side-effect this also has the potential
of making their application scriptable.

In any case: the idea is well worth looking into.

-- 
Marc-Andre Lemburg
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