ctypes 0.9.0 released ===================== Overview ctypes is a ffi (Foreign Function Interface) package for Python. It allows to call functions exposed from dlls/shared libraries and has extensive facilities to create, access and manipulate simpole and complicated C data types transparently from Python - in other words: wrap libraries in pure Python. ctypes runs on Windows, MacOS X, Linux, Solaris, FreeBSD. It may also run on other systems, provided that libffi supports this platform. Changes in 0.9.0 ctypes now requires Python 2.3 or higher, Python 2.2 is no longer supported. The big change is that ctypes now uses the same code base on all platforms, many, many bug should have been fixed this way on non-windows systems. The destribution now contains libffi, no need to find, download, build and install a compatible version. There have been lots of improvements and additions both to ctypes itself, and to the ctypes.com windows framework, too many to remember now and document here. Most prominent additions to ctypes.com are: A ctypes.com.client module supporting dynamic dispatch An internet explorer toolband sample Many improvements to the stoplite sample Detailed changelogs are in CVS (well, sometimes I forget to update them): http://cvs.sourceforge.net/viewcvs.py/ctypes/ctypes/ChangeLog?rev=HEAD http://cvs.sourceforge.net/viewcvs.py/ctypes/ctypes/win32/com/ChangeLog?rev=... Future plans The ultimate purpose of the 0.9 release series is to shake out the remaining bugs, especially on platforms I have no access to, and to target a rock stable ctypes 1.0 release. When ctypes 1.0 is released, the com framework will be split off into a separate framework named 'comtypes'. Download Downloads are available in the sourceforge files section http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=71702 Separate source distributions are available for windows and non-windows systems. Please use the .zip file for Windows (it contains the ctypes.com framework), and use the .tar.gz file for non-Windows systems (it contains the complete cross-platform libffi sources). Binary windows installers, which contain compiled extension modules, are also available, be sure to download the correct one for the Python version you are using. Homepage http://starship.python.net/crew/theller/ctypes/ Enjoy, Thomas