[C++-sig] A couple of simple BP V2 questions

[David Abrahams]

"Scott A. Smith" <ssmith at magnet.fsu.edu> writes:

> I am biting the bullet and switching my project over to use V2 finally.
> Many thanks to everyone working on the BP, the new documentation looks
> terrific. I am hoping someone can take the time to answer a couple of
> very simple questions to get me started.
>
> 1.) In the Hello tutorial, I see that one uses the Python Module name
>     when creating instances of a class object.
>
>            >>>   import hello
>            >>>   planet = hello.World()
>
>     But in other places, it seems like the module name is not
>     required.

Where?

>     I don't recall ever needing the module name for any exposed classes
>     from V1. 


It was no different in V1.

>     I understand that once planet (above) is made one does not need
>     hello. to access its members, but is it always true that one
>     needs it when declaring class objects? What about global
>     functions?  Is there a way to set things so they do not need
>     this?

  >>> from hello import *

> 2.) The tutorial begins dealing with classes, and looks so nice that I
>     doubt I'll have many problems switching to use V2. But on simpler things
>     I am at a loss. At the start of my project, before I even get to dealing
>     with my C++ classes,  I have some global variables and functions
> declared.
>     For example,
>
>     extern const double PLANCK;             (in .hpp)
>     const double PLANCK  = 6.6260755e-34;   (in .cpp)
>
>     which in BP V1 I exposed using something like
>
>     PyModName.add(boost::python::make_ref(PLANCK),    "PLANCK");
>
>     Now make_ref & PyModName.add are gone, so I took a guess & tried
>
>     def("PLANCK",    PLANCK,    reference_existing_object());
>
>     which compiles but doesn't link. How do I exposes a simple constant, not
>     in any class but globally defined. 


        scope().attr("PLANCK") = 6.6260755e-34;

>     Can I do it "read-only" as suggested
>     in the tutorial when explaining class Var where it uses
>     .def_readonly("name", &Var::name)?

Nope. This is a Python feature/limitation. There's no way to add
properties to modules, and they don't have overridable
__getattr__/__setattr__ functions.

-- 
                       David Abrahams
   dave at boost-consulting.com * http://www.boost-consulting.com
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