C pointers/Python

[Stephen Thorne]

On 21 Mar 2005 19:32:20 -0800, joe at gmail.com <doodle4 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Can i do something like this?
> 
> if code == CODE1:
>     data = 0x0
>     While True:
>          len = len - 1
>          if len == -1:
>              break
>          buffer = data
> 
> Do i need to initialze the buffer?

Please, forget everything you know about memory, pointers, and C idiom.
Also, considering doing the python tutorial. There is one provided
here: http://python.org/doc/tut

Basically, you're not approaching this in a python-like way, and thus
what should be a single line (i.e. 'return data') you're trying to
turn into a painful process of copying data from one memory location
to another. This is acceptable in the C world, and not appropriate in
the python world.

I would suggest you define your problem in broader terms (i.e. "I am
trying to interpret data that is coming over a socket, my packet
structure looks like this ..., how do I marshall dispatch that to
callbacks so I can talk the protocol properly? Here is a link to the
working C code http://...") and there is a large group of wonderful
people here that would love to show you the pythonic way of achieving
your goal.

-- 
Stephen Thorne