On Jun 4, 2009, at 3:35 PM, Thomas Heller wrote:
[Please keep the discussion on the list]
Joseph Garvin schrieb:
On Thu, Jun 4, 2009 at 3:43 AM, Thomas Heller <thel...@python.net>
wrote:
There have been some attempts to use ctypes to access C++ objects.
We (Roman Yakovenko and myself) made some progress. We were able to
handle C++ name mangling, the special C++ calling convention,
access virtual, non-virtual, overloaded functions, but finally
gave up
because the binary layout (function tables, member variables, and
so on)
of C++ objects is way too complicated and undocumented.
Have you read the book Inside The C++ Object Model?:
It's probably out of date now, but I'm about halfway through it and it
documents a ton of the little unexpected optimizations and such that
cause the binary layout to be complex. How did you get as far as you
did without having figured out the layout? (e.g. if you could access
virtual functions you must have known how to get at the virtual
table)
I found a lot of material on the web, also I used the (very good)
visual
studio debugger, and finally I did a lot of experimentation. We
were only
able to access some very simple C++ objects.
There is also a patent or patents from MS about the vtable.
All in all, as I said, IMO it is too complicated to figure out the
binary
layout of the C++ objects (without using a C++ compiler), also there
are
quite some Python packages for accessing them.
Hi Thomas,
We're weighing options for accessing C++ objects via Python. I know of
SIWG and Boost; are there others that you think deserve consideration?
I've been happy with ctypes in my limited exposure to it and would
love to find a way to make that work. This thread has been very
interesting to me.
Thanks
Philip
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