[Cython] new FFI library for Python

Robert Bradshaw robertwb at gmail.com
Tue Jun 19 21:01:55 CEST 2012


On Tue, Jun 19, 2012 at 4:58 AM, Sturla Molden <sturla at molden.no> wrote:
> On 18.06.2012 16:12, Stefan Behnel wrote:
>
>> the PyPy folks have come up with a new FFI library (called cffi) for
>> CPython (and eventually PyPy, obviously).
>
>
> It looks like ctypes albeit with a smaller API. (C definitions as text
> strings instead of Python objects.)
>
> Sometimes I think Python and a ffi would always suffice. But in practice
> Cython's __dealloc__ can be indispensible, as opposed to a Python __del__
> method which can be unreliable. And Python's module loader mostly takes care
> of the common problem of DLL hell.

This also assumes you're always able and willing to use/write a
library written in a lower-level language like C or Fortran to
actually do your heavy lifting. Cython (ideally) allows you to write
your actual number-crunching code without learning an (entirely) new
language.

- Robert


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