[pypy-dev] cppyy: C++ bindings for PyPy

[Leonard Ritter]

Addendum: apparently, clang even provides python bindings.

http://eli.thegreenplace.net/2011/07/03/parsing-c-in-python-with-clang/

On Mon, Apr 23, 2012 at 11:17 AM, Leonard Ritter <paniq at paniq.org> wrote:
> (sorry, that was also supposed to go to the ML)
>
> Awesome work, keep it up!
>
> But: I showed the reflex library you're using to friends and they both
> suggested clang to parse C++ headers instead. What do you think about
> that?
>
> Cheers,
> Leonard
>
> On Mon, Apr 23, 2012 at 7:08 AM,  <wlavrijsen at lbl.gov> wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> as detailed in a couple of blog posts in the past (*), for some time now we
>> have been working on making C++ bindings through the Reflex package
>> available
>> on PyPy, in the form of the "cppyy" module. Software is never done, and that
>> is true also in this case, but it has reached a level of maturity at which
>> it
>> can be said to be usable. Initial docs are now up on:
>>
>>   http://doc.pypy.org/en/latest/cppyy.html
>>
>> with instructions on how to setup the reflex-support branch and how to test
>> it out. The documentation will be updated with more advanced and detailed
>> topics in the next couple of weeks or so.
>>
>> There's a sizable (non-PyPy) set of unit tests that still need to be worked
>> through, thus development will steadily continue at its current pace. Still,
>> if you find that cppyy almost works for you except for a particular feature,
>> feel free to ask for it to be prioritized.
>>
>> The biggest obstacle for most people (that are not in the field of HEP) will
>> be the current set of dependencies. Although the dependency set for cppyy is
>> really only Reflex, which could be distributed separately, for the CPython
>> equivalent code, the dependency set is a large portion of the ROOT class
>> library. The medium-term plan then is to use Cling, which is based on CLang
>> from llvm (http://root.cern.ch/drupal/content/cling) as the back-end. For
>> this, there will be a PyCling on CPython, and all as stand-alone projects to
>> remove the large dependency set.
>>
>> More interesting though, having Cling on the back of the bindings allows
>> far more advanced features, such as dynamic setup of callbacks and cross
>> language inheritance to put Python code into C++ frameworks. This has been
>> prototyped successfully in Clings predecessor (CINT), but would be very hard
>> to do in Reflex.
>>
>> Of course, an important reason for pushing this code out to the community
>> somewhat early, is that it allows anyone so interested to start hacking on
>> it and help shape it!
>>
>> Best regards,
>>           Wim
>>
>> (*)
>> http://morepypy.blogspot.com/2011/08/wrapping-c-libraries-with-reflection.html
>>
>>  http://morepypy.blogspot.com/2010/07/cern-sprint-report-wrapping-c-libraries.html
>> --
>> WLavrijsen at lbl.gov    --    +1 (510) 486 6411    --    www.lavrijsen.net
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