[Numpy-discussion] best way for C code wrapping

hi all, I intend to connect some C code to Python for some my purposes. What is the best software for the aim? Is it numpy.ctypes or swig or something else? IIRC ctypes are present in Python since v2.5, so it's ok to use just ctypes, not numpy.ctypes, or some difference is present? Another one question: if I'll translate a fortran code to C via f2c, which % of speed down should I expect (in average, using gfortran and gcc)? Afaik it contains operations with sparse matrices. Thank you in advance, D.