Providing a Python wrapper to a C++ type.

[Stefan Behnel]

Marco Nawijn, 16.10.2012 12:17:
> On Tuesday, October 16, 2012 10:11:52 AM UTC+2, aaron.l... at gmail.com wrote:
>> I have a C++ module where I have a defined, working type. How would I
>> make a wrapper for this type to be able to be used in Python? I am
>> familiar(-ish) with the C-API for functions but I can't see concretely how
>> one would include an interface to a type.
>>
>> Is it this? http://docs.python.org/release/2.7.3/extending/newtypes.html
> 
> There are a few ways of doing this. At least three come to my mind:
> 1. Wrap the C++ type yourself by using handcrafted code implemented with the Python C API
> 2. Use SWIG to wrap the C++ code and (semi) automatically create the wrapper (http://www.swig.org/)
> 3. Use BOOST Python to wrap the C++ code (http://www.boost.org/doc/libs/1_51_0/libs/python/doc/index.html)
> 
> I would highly discourage (1) unless you are very brave and curious. Ofcourse it is a nice excercise, but if you want something to work quickly I would recommend to use either (2) or (3).
> 
> I have used both SWIG and BOOST Python and either of them worked pretty well for me. In the end I selected BOOST Python, because I was only interested in the Python wrapping (SWIG could generate many other wrappers as well).

There's also Cython, which provides a very flexible way (unlike SWIG) of
doing these things easily (unlike C++ with Boost).

http://docs.cython.org/src/userguide/wrapping_CPlusPlus.html

I agree with discouraging 1) in specific.

Stefan