Mixing Python and C: any easy way?

[Carl Bevil]

Hey folks.  I'm on a small team of programmers developing a project over a 
period of several months.  We normally code in C++, but are thinking it would 
be nice to do part of the development in a scripting language such as Python.  
The nature of our application is still going to require that large chunks of 
the app still be done in C++.

So I've been looking into ways to easily interface the two languages.  The 
only thing I've turned up so far is SWIG.  Unfortunately it doesn't seem to be 
as automated as I'd like.  It appears that you have to create a special 
interface file for every C++ header you want to access from Python.  There may 
be many headers containing complicated objects in our project, and I 
anticipate creating interface files would be a lot of work, and would turn 
into a maintenance problem.  Maybe someone out there has been in a similar 
situation and can tell me whether this is a pain or fairly easy?

Thing is, I am hesitant to tell the other programmers on the team, "You have 
to learn a new language, which will make development faster, but you also have 
to create special SWIG files for every C++ header you want to access from this 
new language, and make sure you keep these files up to date with changes you 
make in your headers, etc....".  We have a tight schedule (who doesn't?), so 
I'm worried about efficiency.

Am I overreacting here?  And is there a better way to do this?  If not SWIG, 
then what can do this task?  Am I asking for the impossible?  I've heard that 
Python is supposed to be good at interfacing with C/C++.  Can someone give me 
some pointers that will help me out here?

Thanks!

Carl