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Programming Python, 3rd Edition
book

Programming Python, 3rd Edition

by Mark Lutz
August 2006
Intermediate to advanced content levelIntermediate to advanced
1600 pages
51h 46m
English
O'Reilly Media, Inc.
Content preview from Programming Python, 3rd Edition

“Add Python. Mix Well. Repeat.”

In the prior chapter, we explored half of the Python/C integration picture: calling C services from Python. This mode lets programmers speed up operations by moving them to C, and to utilize external libraries by wrapping them in C extension modules and types. But the inverse can be just as useful: calling Python from C. By delegating selected components of an application to embedded Python code, we can open them up to onsite changes without having to ship a system’s code.

This chapter tells this other half of the Python/C integration tale. It introduces the Python C interfaces that make it possible for programs written in C-compatible languages to run Python program code. In this mode, Python acts as an embedded control language (what some call a “macro” language). Although embedding is mostly presented in isolation here, keep in mind that Python’s integration support is best viewed as a whole. A system’s structure usually determines an appropriate integration approach: C extensions, embedded code calls, or both. To wrap up, this chapter concludes by discussing a handful of larger integration platforms, such as Component Object Model (COM) and Jython, which present broader component integration possibilities.

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Publisher Resources

ISBN: 0596009259Supplemental ContentErrata Page