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Python Programming On Win32
book

Python Programming On Win32

by Andy Robinson, Mark Hammond
January 2000
Intermediate to advanced
672 pages
21h 46m
English
O'Reilly Media, Inc.
Content preview from Python Programming On Win32

Working with DLLs and C Programs

Windows uses dynamic link libraries extensively. DLLs allow collections of functions, usually written in C or C++, to be stored in one file and loaded dynamically by many different programs. DLLs influence everything that happens on Windows; indeed, the Windows API is a collection of such DLLs.

Python is written in ANSI C, and one of its original design goals was to be easy to extend and embed at the C level. Most of its functionality lives in a DLL, so that other programs can import Python at runtime and start using it to execute and evaluate expressions. Python extension modules can also be written in C, C++, or Delphi to add new capabilities to the language that can be imported at runtime.

The Win32 extensions for Python, which we cover throughout this book, are a collection of such libraries that expose much of the Windows API to Python.

The basic Python distribution includes a manual called Extending and Embedding the Python Interpreter, which describes the process in detail. Chapter 22, shows you how to work with Python at this level on Windows.

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Publisher Resources

ISBN: 1565926218Errata Page