[IronPython] IronPython 2.6.1 & ctypes, C library, and debugging with VS2008

[TP]

I'm using IronPython 2.6.1 for Net 2.0 and VS2008 on Windows XP SP3.

I have a python script that lets me access the Leptonica Image
Processing C library (http://leptonica.com/) using the ctypes module.

Everything seems to work fine with cpython 2.6. I can correctly load
leptonlib.dll, create leptonica PIX images, manipulate them, and even
display them using PyQT. I can use VS2008 to put breakpoints on
leptonica C functions and step through the C code in the VS2008
debugger.

I thought I'd give IronPython a try since it also has ctypes, but I
ran into a number of problems.

The leptonlib.dll must be loading since I am able to correctly get
back the library's version string. That is the following works:

    _getLeptonlibVersion = _leptonlib.getLeptonlibVersion
    _getLeptonlibVersion.restype = ctypes.c_void_p
    addr = _getLeptonlibVersion()
    version = ctypes.string_at(addr)

However the following code doesn't seem to work under IronPython 2.6.1:

    pix = Pix(dimensions=(10,20,1))

where essentially the following is called:

    _pix = ctypes.c_void_p()
    _pix.value = _leptonlib.pixCreate(width, height, depth)
    self._pix = _pix

and I want to treat _pix as an opaque ptr I just hand back to
leptonica whenever it needs it. For example:

    def height(self):
        """Get height of pix in pixels."""
        return _leptonlib.pixGetHeight(self._pix)

Which works with cpython but returns something other than 20 with IronPython.

By specifying "-X:Debug -X:FullFrames -X:Tracing leptonica.py" as the
arguments to C:\Program Files\IronPython 2.6\ipy.exe I can get
IronPython to correctly stop at places in my script where I put:

    import pdb
    pdb.set_trace()

when I debug leptonlibd.dll with VS2008. However, my breakpoints on
leptonica's C functions never seem to get hit. This works fine if I
instead use python26.exe as command to launch when debugging.

Ideally I like to have the VS Debugger stop in leptonlibd.dll's
pixCreate() C function just before it returns its value so I can
compare that to what I get back on the IronPython side.

So how's does one use VS2008 to step through C functions in DLLs that
are loaded by IronPython and the ctypes module?

Secondly, am I using ctypes wrong, and does my code only work by
happenstance for cpython.