Programming Python, Second Edition

Part V. Integration

This part of the book explores Python’s interfaces for communicating with software components written in other programming languages. Its emphasis is on mixing Python with programs written in C and C++, but other integration techniques are also introduced along the way. This part contains two chapters that address the two primary modes of Python/C integration:

Chapter 19. This chapter presents tools that allow Python scripts to call out to C components. C components take the form of new modules or object types. This chapter also covers SWIG -- a system that automatically generates the glue code needed to export C and C++ libraries to Python scripts and hides much of the complexity underlying extensions.

Chapter 20. This chapter presents tools that allow C programs to execute Python scripts. These tools live in the Python runtime API -- a collection of functions exposed by the Python interpreter and linked in to your C/C++ program. This chapter concludes with a look at other integration topics and systems -- JPython, COM, CORBA, and so on.

This part of the book assumes that you know how to read C programs, and is useful mostly to developers responsible for implementing application integration layers that route control to and from Python scripts. Yet because C components are at the heart of many Python systems, a basic understanding of integration concepts can be useful even to scripters who code strictly in Python.