The process of wrapping a C struct or C++ class in an extension type
often has the user doing a pretty mechanical duplication of
attributes/functions that Cython already knows about. I'm looking at doing:
cdef struct S:
int a
# etc.
then `cython.autowrap[S]` would create an extension type that wraps S by
value. All attributes convertible to/from a Python type gets a property
(as well as any attribute that has an has an autowrap declared). For
`cppclass` this would extend to member functions as well - this
obviously gets more involved, but again the same basic rule applies of
only including stuff with an obvious conversion.
I wouldn't propose to deal with the C++ nightmare of "how to return an
owned reference". The idea would be to copy by value or nothing.
I'd also propose only minor customization via keyword arguments (for
example the name of a cdef staticmethod constructor, the name of the
"obj" field in the C++ class). The basic rule would be that if it
doesn't do what you want then it's an extension type, so you can always
inherit from it and define the missing bits.
Obviously structs have already have an automatic conversion to/from
dicts and some cppclasses have autoconversions too. This wouldn't aim to
replace that - it'd just be an option that the user could explicitly ask
for.
I have a somewhat working prototype for the struct side. Obviously the
real complications are on the C++ side, but I don't think it's hugely
difficult providing you accept there's lots of stuff that can't be
guessed and inheritance is the way round that.
Does this sound reasonable/something that'd be accepted? Any other thoughts?
David
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