[C++-sig] choosing a python-c++ interface: a few questions

[David Marimont]

I'm shopping around for an interface from python to C++.  I'll
eventually have to deliver code entirely in C++, but I'd like to use
python as much as possible in the development process.  My strategy
will be to use python for testing new data structures, algorithms
etc., and then once I'm confident they work, "push them down" into
C++, write python on top of that, push that down into C++, etc.  So my
initial take is that I need to call python from C++, but not having
developed this way before, I probably shouldn't be too sure about
that.

I should add that I'm not an experienced C++ programmer.  I plan to
keep the C++ I write simple and do as much as I can with existing
libraries.

The software I'll be writing involves image processing and analysis,
and both numerical and combinatorial optimization.  I anticipate heavy
use of the STL, as well as something like the template numerical
toolkit, which is "a successor to the Lapack++, Sparselib++, IML++,
and MV++ packages" (according to its website at
http://math.nist.gov/tnt/).  There are some other C++ libraries for
computer vision and image processing I'll be using also.

My general question is whether boost is the right choice for creating
the interfaces I need.  But I have a few specific questions as well:

1. Are interfaces to the C++ standard library are part of the existing
Boost Python Library?

2. Can interfaces be generated automatically from C++ source code?

3. If the answer to either of these questions is no, will that change
in version 2?

I've only been reading this list for a week or so now, so I'm not sure
I'm addressing these questions to the right people.  Any help you
could give me, including pointers to other places to get these
questions answered, is much appreciated!

   David Marimont
   http://www.nxpdata.com