[Python-Dev] Let's change to C API!

[Greg Ewing]

Neil Schemenauer wrote:
> Perhaps a "argument clinic on steroids" would be the proper
> approach.  So, extensions would mostly be written in C.  However, we
> would have a pre-processor that does some "magic" to make using the
> Python API cleaner.

You seem to have started on the train of thought that
led me to create Pyrex (the precursor to Cython).

It went like this: I was getting frustrated with SWIG
because it wasn't powerful enough to do what I wanted.
I thought about something that would let me write functions
with Python headers and C bodies.

Then I realised that to really make the C API bearable it
would need to take care of refcounting and exception handling,
so the body couldn't just be plain C, it would need some Python
semantics as well. Given that, it seemed more sensible to base
all of the syntax on Python.

Also, I wanted to avoid the problem you get with all
preprocessors, that when something goes wrong you get
error messages in terms of the expanded code rather than
the original source. To fix that I would need to do a
full parsing and type analysis job -- essentially it
would need to be a full-blown compiler in its own right.

So, "argument clinic on steroids" is actually a pretty
good description of Pyrex.

-- 
Greg