COM "out" Variant Array params and such

[Mark Hammond]

Michael Kelly wrote:
...

> strange errors and also a quandry.  The
> quandry is I can't figure how to make a
> call that has an "out" parameter that
> is not a retval and is a Variant Array. 
> 
>  When I make the call in Python as in
> MyIniFile.ReadSections("Section name", VariantArrayofStrings)
> whatever I put for VariantArrayofStrings never get assigned anything.


VariantArrayofStrings is an "out" param - it should not be assigned 
anywhere.

The correct way to call this should be:

VariantArrayOfStrings = MyIniFile.ReadSections("Section name")

You probably need to generate "makepy" support for this to work - but it 
seems you have already done that.


> I read some stuff in the docs about coercing PyObject and Variants
> but with no real pointers where to see how this is done.


Some pretty deep magic.  The type libraries are processed, and code that 
calls PyIDispatch::InvokeTypes() is called.  The "type tuple" passed to 
InvokeTypes directs InvokeTypes on how to transform the Python args.

> The weird behavior is if I use the method WriteDate to write
> a date and then ReadDate to read it back I get an exception:
> 
> type: exceptions.SystemError
> value: error return without exception set


This is a bug.  Something like that has been fixed recently, but without 
more details I can not be sure if it is exactly the same thing.

Mark.