[pypy-dev] cppyy and callbacks

[wlavrijsen at lbl.gov]

Hi Alex,

> I'd looked around a bit but could only find vague references to CINT, and
> it wasn't even clear to me whether a full CINT backend really existed or it
> was just a hack/experiment.

it's quite alive; in high energy physics, Reflex is only used by mapping
Reflex information into CINT, then use it from CINT. Is historic, though,
and not recommended in general.

> Is it actually suitable for general-purpose use?

If you're willing to install all of ROOT? (Or a minimal version anyway?) On
the one hand, I'd argue against that; on the other, ROOT is available in
many science sections of Linux distro's as well as in MacPorts, so it's not
that big of a deal. But also the run-time dependencies increase.

Anyway, the Reflex backend is the default precisely b/c it does not add any
further dependencies. Also, CINT per se does not provide what you want (the
code that allows compiling in extra parts is in ROOT proper).

> If so, I'd certainly be happy to try it..  how would one go about switching
> to using the CINT backend instead of Reflex?

Is documented here, can only be done "builtin":

   http://doc.pypy.org/en/latest/cppyy_backend.html

I never made a standalone libcppyy_backend library for CINT, as I don't
expect there to be any use (physicists in HEP use by and large only releases
provided by their experiments' software group; and CINT should be on its way
out now that we have Cling largely working).

Best regards,
            Wim
-- 
WLavrijsen at lbl.gov    --    +1 (510) 486 6411    --    www.lavrijsen.net