Hi Maciej, Armin, et al!
Together with co-authors I've CC'd, I'm getting close to finishing the 4th
edition of "Python in a Nutshell", and in particular I'm in charge of the
"extending and embedding" chapter ("chap 24" based on the 3rd Ed's number),
which in the first three editions focused almost exclusively on Python's C
API.
Working on the 4th edition I dug deeper into CFFI and I'm getting close to
being convinced that it's THE way to extend (dunno about embed?) Python --
CPython as well as of course PyPy -- putting ctypes for sure, the API
likely, and maybe even Cython in the shade. HOWEVER -- I now face the task
of subtly convincing people who've been mostly using (especially!) ctypes,
to switch to CFFI (esp. now that they can easily download free C compilers
for all platforms, inc. Windows).
Alas, I don't have enough real-life CFFI experience myself (and it's hard
for me to get any since I'm still working 60%-time for Google, where CLIF
is THE approved way to extend Python). I wonder if any of you would like to
take a look and offer suggestions about the chapter, *especially* after the
way-too-miniscule coverage of CFFI. I need (for evangelism purposes!)
credible examples, esp. one setting CFFI head-to-head against ctypes (but
comparisons with cython and the API would be fine too -- IF I could figure
out how to define completely new Python types in CFFI, which so far escapes
me).
If asking for your collaboration is too much, is there at least a way to
get your OK about reusing, with small adaptations, some of the excellent
examples you give on CFFI's docs? That would probably work better than me
trying to work things out from scratch, but, without your explicit
permission, it would likely break copyright or something.
BTW, since we're trying to slim down the page count of the Nutshell, I
suspect that ch.24 will live mostly online, accessible 100% freely, with
the paper book devoting just very few pages to summarizing the options for
extending and embedding and linking to the online materials. I know my
co-authors (CC'd) are fine with that but I still need an official OK from
O'Reilly (I think I'll get it). Just in case this makes a difference to
your attitude about cooperating with us in crafting this chapter!-)
Thanks,
Alex
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