[Python-Dev] Replacing PyWin32's PeekNamedPipe, ReadFile, and WriteFile

Jean-Paul Calderone exarkun at divmod.com
Thu Jul 23 14:57:33 CEST 2009


On Thu, 23 Jul 2009 14:23:56 +0200, Christian Heimes <lists at cheimes.de> wrote:
>Nick Coghlan wrote:
>> I see ctypes as largely useful when you want to call a native DLL but
>> don't have any existing infrastructure for accessing native code from
>> your project. A few lines of ctypes code is then a much better solution
>> than adding a C or C++ compilation dependency just to access a couple of
>> functions.
>>
>> Of course, that definitely isn't the case for CPython - we not only have
>> plenty of existing C infrastructure, but in the specific case of
>> subprocess on Windows we already have a dedicated extension module
>> (PC/_subprocess.c).
>
>You've hit the nail on the head! That's it.
>

True, CPython has C infrastructure.  What about the other Python runtimes,
though?  At the language summit, there was a lot of discussion (and, I
thought, agreement) about moving the standard library to be a collaborative
project between several of the major runtime projects.  A ctypes-based
solution seems more aligned with this goal than more C code.

Jean-Paul


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