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<title>PyCXX README</title>
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<h1>PyCXX -- Python C++ Extensions Support</h1>
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<h2>Installation using distutils</h2>
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<h3>Windows Installation and Demo</h3>
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<li>Fetch <a href="http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/cxx/pycxx-5.4.2.tar.gz">
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http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/cxx/pycxx-5.4.2.tar.gz</a></li>
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<li>Expand the archive into a directory of your choosing C:\ for example.
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Note: WinZip can expand .tar.gz files.</li>
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<li>Install the PyCXX files:
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<li><pre>C:> cd \pycxx-5.4.2</pre></li>
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<li><pre>C:\pycxx-5.4.2> python setup.py install</pre></li>
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<li>Install the PyCXX Demo:
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<li><pre>C:> cd \pycxx-5.4.2\Demo</pre></li>
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<li><pre>C:\pycxx-5.4.2\Demo> python setup.py install</pre></li>
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<li><pre>C:> python</pre></li>
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<li><pre>>>> import CXX.example</pre></li>
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<li><pre>>>> CXX.example.test()</pre></li>
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<li><pre>>>> r = CXX.example.range( 11, 100, 13 )</pre></li>
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<li><pre>>>> for i in r: print i</pre></li>
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<li><pre>...</pre></li>
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<h3>Unix Installation and Demo</h3>
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<p>Note: distutils is not available for Python 1.5.2</p>
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<li>Fetch <a href="http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/cxx/pycxx-5.4.2.tar.gz">
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http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/cxx/pycxx-5.4.2.tar.gz</a>
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<li>Login as root. root access is typically needed on Unix systems to install the PyCXX files into the Python directories.
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<li>Expand the archive into a directory of your choosing ~\ for example.
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<li>Install the PyCXX files:
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<li><pre># cd ~\pycxx-5.4.2</pre>
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<li><pre># python setup.py install</pre>
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<li>Install the PyCXX Demo:
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<li><pre># cd ~\pycxx-5.4.2\Demo</pre>
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<li><pre># python setup.py install</pre>
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<li><pre>$ python</pre>
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<li><pre>>>> import CXX.example</pre>
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<li><pre>>>> CXX.example.test()</pre>
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<li><pre>>>> r = CXX.example.range( 11, 100, 13 )</pre>
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<li><pre>>>> for i in r: print i</pre>
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<h2>Installation using Project and Makefile</h2>
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<p>If you cannot or do not wish to use the distutils methods to work with PyCXX a set
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of Makefiles and Project files are provided.</p>
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<h3>Windows Installation and Demo</h3>
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<li>Fetch <a href="http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/cxx/pycxx-5.4.2.tar.gz">
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http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/cxx/pycxx-5.4.2.tar.gz</a>
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<li>Expand the archive into a directory of your choosing C:\ for example. WinZip can expand .tar.gz files.
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<li>Build the example. Using Microsoft .NET 2003 C++ for python version 2.4 or later load the workspace corresponsing to the version of
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Python you wish the work with.
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<li>example_py24.sln - Python 2.4 and its maintanence release
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<li>example_py25.sln - Python 2.5 and its maintanence release
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<li>Build the example. Using Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0 for python versions upto 2.3 load the solution corresponsing to the version of
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Python you wish the work with.
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<li>example_py15.dsw - Python 1.5.2
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<li>example_py20.dsw - Python 2.0 and 2.0.1
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<li>example_py21.dsw - Python 2.1 and 2.1.1
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<li>example_py22.dsw - Python 2.2 and its maintanence release
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<li>example_py23.dsw - Python 2.3 and its maintanence release
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<li>Run the example. (I'll assume you are testing Python 2.3)
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<li>cd c:\pycxx-5.4.2\pyds23
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<li>c:\python21\python -c "import example;example.test()"
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<h3>Unix and Mac OS X Installation and Demo</h3>
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<li>Fetch <a href="http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/cxx/pycxx-5.4.2.tar.gz">
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http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/cxx/pycxx-5.4.2.tar.gz</a>
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<li>Expand the archive into a directory of your choosing ~/ for example.
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<li>Select to makefile for your system and python version.
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<li>example_freebsd_py15.mak - FreeBSD Python 1.5.2 (see <a href="#note_1_5_2">note</a> below)
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<li>example_freebsd_py20.mak - FreeBSD Python 2.0, 2.0.1
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<li>example_freebsd_py21.mak - FreeBSD Python 2.1, 2.1.1
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<li>example_freebsd_py22.mak - FreeBSD Python 2.2
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<li>example_freebsd_py23.mak - FreeBSD Python 2.3
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<li>example_linux_py15.mak - Linux Python 1.5.2
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<li>example_linux_py20.mak - Linux Python 2.0, 2.0.1
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<li>example_linux_py21.mak - Linux Python 2.1, 2.1.1
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<li>example_linux_py22.mak - Linux Python 2.2
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<li>example_linux_py23.mak - Linux Python 2.3
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<li>example_linux_py24.mak - Linux Python 2.4
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<li>example_linux_py25.mak - Linux Python 2.5
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<li>example_linux_py26.mak - Linux Python 2.6
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<li>example_fink_10.3_py24.mak - Mac OS X 10.3 fink Python 2.4
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<li>example_fink_10.4_py24.mak - Mac OS X 10.4 fink Python 2.4
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<li>example_mac_py23.mak - Mac OS X Apple Python 2.3
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<li>example_mac_py24.mak - Mac OS X Python 2.4
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<li>example_mac_py25.mak - Mac OS X Python 2.5
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<li>example_mac_py26.mak - Mac OS X Python 2.6
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<li>Build the example. Use GNU make<br>
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$ make -f <var>example-makefile</var> example.so
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<li>Run the examples.<br>
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$ make -f <var>example-makefile</var> test
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<p><a id="note_1_5_2">Note:</a> The Unix version of python 1.5.2 may need to be rebuilt so that C++ is support.
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If you get reports of undefined symbols like cout or cerr then its likely that python
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is not compiled and linked to support C and C++.</p>
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<p>To create a makefile for another vendors Unix follow these steps:</p>
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<li>copy one of the example make files above.
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<li>edit the variables to match your Python installation and C++ compile needs
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<li>Proceed to build and test as above.
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<p>Note: most of the makefile rules to build PyCXX and its example are contained in example_common.mak.
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<h2>Revision History</h2>
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<h3>Version 5.4.2 (11-Oct-2008)</h3>
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<p>Add support for rich compare.</p>
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<p>Add the simplest code for a module with a single function and a single class (Demo/simple.cxx)</p>
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<p>Fix long standing bugs with Dict::iterator</p>
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<h3>Version 5.4.1 (28-Jun-2008)</h2>
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<p>Add Boolean type from Vivian De Smedt.</p>
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<p>Patch from Dmitry Kostjuchenko to which improves PyCXX's method calling
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speed/performance by almost 2 times.</p>
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<p>More PY_LONG_LONG support.</p>
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<p>No longer allow creation of Py::Int from PY_LONG_LONG as long long cannot fit. Use Py::Long.</p>
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<p>Py:Dict can now be constructed from a Py::Object.</p>
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<h3>Version 5.4.0 (20-Jan-2007)</h3>
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<p>PyCXX has a new <a href="https://svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/cxx/trunk/CXX/COPYRIGHT">BSD license</a>
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to make it open source compatible.
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Many thanks to Sebastian Sauer for bring this matter to our attention and
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to Paul Dubios for working with the LLNL people to get the license changed.</p>
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<p>Fix compilation issues with GCC 4.1 found on FC6.</p>
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<p>Fix compilation issues caused by problems in IRIX header files.</p>
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<p>Add PY_LONG_LONG support from patch contributed by Dmitry Kostjuchenko.</p>
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<h3>Version 5.3.6 (15-Oct-2006)</h3>
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<p>Support for Python 2.5 - Fix issues around new typedef Py_ssize_t</p>
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<h3>Version 5.3.5 (2-Oct-2005)</h3>
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<p>More changes to keep GCC 4.0 happy - no warning should be report</p>
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<h3>Version 5.3.4 (29-Aug-2005)</h3>
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<p>Add interator support - thanks to Helmut Jarausch - see pycxx_iter demo</p>
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<p>Allow an extension to be part of a python package</p>
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<p>Allow creation of Exception hierachies</p>
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<p>Fix problem compiling with GCC 2.9X</p>
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<p>Fix uninitialise memory problem</p>
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<P>Work around compile problems with the example and GCC 4.0.</p>
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<h3>Version 5.3.3 and 5.3.2</h3>
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<p>No details recorded</p>
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<h3>Version 5.3.1 (19-Jan-2005)</h3>
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<p>Support GCC4 and Microsoft .NET 2003 aka MSVC 7.1</p>
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<h3>Version 5.3 (21-Oct-2004)</h3>
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<p>String object now support python string and unicode string objects.</p>
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<p>Fix most bugs reported on SourceForge</p>
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<h3>Version 5.2 (27-Nov-2003)</h3>
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<p>PyCXX supports Python version 2.3, 2.2, 2.1, 2.0 and 1.5.2 on Windows and Unix.</p>
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<p>Fixed problems with keyword functions.</p>
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<p>Improve Extension API to give access to names and docs</p>
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<p>Support GCC 3.</p>
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<p>Added support for custom Exceptions</p>
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<h3>Version 5.1 (2-Aug-2001)</h3>
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<p>I'm using the name PyCXX for this package, CXX is far to close to a compilers name.</p>
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<p>PyCXX supports Python version 2.2, 2.1.1, 2.1, 2.0, 2.0.1 and 1.5.2 on Windows and Unix.</p>
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<p>New in this release:</p>
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<li>Support for the Windows Linker /DELAYLOAD feature. Enable this feature by
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defining PY_WIN32_DELAYLOAD_PYTHON_DLL when compiling IndirectPythonInterface.cxx</li>
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<li>Remove "CXX/Array.hxx" and associated code - its does not belong in PyCXX</li>
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<li>Work on the docs. Mostly to clean up the HTML to allow more extensive work.</li>
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<li>Reformated the sources to a consistent style. The mix of styles and tabs sizes
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was making working on the sources error prone.</li>
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<li>Added workaround to setup.py to allow GCC to compile c++ code.</li>
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<li>Added Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0 project files for 1.5, 2.0 and 2.1 builds</li>
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<li>Added Unix make files for Linux (tested on RedHat 7.1) and FreeBSD (tested on 4.3)</li>
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<li>Merged changes from Tom Malcolmson</li>
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<h3>(July 9, 2000)</h3>
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<p>Renamed all header files to reflect the CXX include name space and that they are
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C++ header files.</p>
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<table cellspacing=0 cellpadding=3px>
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<tr><th>Old</th><th>New</th></tr>
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<tr><td>#include "CXX_Config.h"</td><td>#include "CXX/Config.hxx"</td></tr>
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<tr><td>#include "CXX_Exception.h"</td><td>#include "CXX/Exception.hxx"</td></tr>
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<tr><td>#include "CXX_Extensions.h"</td><td>#include "CXX/Extensions.hxx"</td></tr>
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<tr><td>#include "CXX_Objects.h"</td><td>#include "CXX/Objects.hxx"</td></tr>
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<h3>Version 5 (May 18, 2000)</h3>
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<p>This version adds Distutils support for installation and some code cleanup.</p>
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<h3>Version 4 (October 11, 1999)</h3>
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<p>This version contains a massive revision to the part of CXX that supports creating
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extension objects and extension modules. Barry Scott contributed these changes.</p>
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<p>CXX has always consisted of two parts: the basic CXX_Objects.h and the more
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experimental CXX_Extensions.h. We will describe the changes to CXX_Objects first, and then
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the changes to CXX_Extensions.h.</p>
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<h3>Changes to CXX_Objects</h3>
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<h4>1. Owned option eliminates need for FromAPI in most cases</h4>
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<p>Object's constructor from PyObject* and method set have a new (backward compatible)
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Object (PyObject* pyob, bool owned = false);
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void set(PyObject* pyob, bool owned = false);
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<p>Users may call these with owned = true if they own the reference pyob already and want
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the Object instance to take over ownership.</p>
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<p>A new inline function Object asObject(PyObject* pyob) returns Object(pyob, true); thus,
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one way to construct an object from a pointer returned by the Python API is to call
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<p>Previously a class FromAPI was provided to solve the problem of taking over an owned
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reference. FromAPI will be eliminated in the next release. It is no longer used by CXX
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itself or its demos. The new mechanism is much cleaner and more efficient.</p>
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<p>Other classes in CXX have been given the same "owned" option on their
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constructors: Int, Float, Long, Complex, SeqBase<T>, Tuple, List, Dict, Module,
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<h4>2. Namespace support in compiler assumed</h4>
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<p>Since EGCS / GCC now supports namespaces and the standard library, the need for
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CXX_config.h is almost gone. We have eliminated all the macros except for one obscure one
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dealing with iterator traits in the standard library.</p>
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<h3>Changes to CXX_Extensions</h3>
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<p>The changes to CXX_Extensions.h are not backward compatible. However, they simplify
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coding so much that we think it is worth the disruption.</p>
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<h4>1. Creating an extension module</h4>
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<p>To create an extension module, you inherit from class ExtensionModule templated on
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yourself: In the constructor, you make calls to register methods of this class with Python
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as extension module methods. In this example, two methods are added (this is a simplified
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form of the example in Demo/example.cxx):</p>
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<pre>class example_module : public ExtensionModule<example_module>
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: ExtensionModule<example_module>( "example" )
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add_varargs_method("sum", &example_module::ex_sum, "sum(arglist) = sum of arguments");
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add_varargs_method("test", &example_module::ex_test, "test(arglist) runs a test suite");
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initialize( "documentation for the example module" );
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virtual ~example_module() {}
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Object ex_sum (const Tuple &a) { ... }
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Object ex_test( const Tuple &a) { ... }
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<p>To initialize the extension, you just instantiate one static instance (static so it
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doesn't destroy itself!):</p>
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static example_module* example = new example_module;
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<p>The methods can be written to take Tuples as arguments and return Objects. If
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exceptions occur they are trapped for you and a Python exception is generated. So, for
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example, the implementation of ex_sum might be:</p>
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Object ex_sum (const Tuple &a)
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for( int i = 0; i < a.length(); i++ )
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<p>class ExtensionModule contains methods to return itself as a Module object, or to
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return its dictionary.</p>
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<h4>Creating extension objects</h4>
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<p>Creating extension objects is of course harder since you must specify how the object
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behaves and give it methods. This is shown in some detail in the example range.h and range.cxx,
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with the test routine rangetest.cxx, in directory Demo.</p>
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<p>Here is a brief overview. You create a class that inherits from PythonExtension
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templated upon itself. You override various methods from PythonExtension to implement
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behaviors, such as getattr, sequence_item, etc. You can also add methods to the object
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that are usable from Python using a similar scheme as for module methods above. </p>
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<p>One of the consequences of inheriting from PythonExtension is that you are inheriting
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from PyObject itself. So your class is-a PyObject and instances of it can be passed to the
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Python C API. Note: this example uses the namespace feature of CXX. The Py:: 's are not
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required if you use the namespace instead.</p>
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class range: public Py::PythonExtension<range> {
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... constructors, etc.
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// initializer, see below
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static void init_type();
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// override functions from PythonExtension
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virtual Py::Object repr();
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virtual Py::Object getattr( const char *name );
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virtual int sequence_length();
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virtual Py::Object sequence_item( int i );
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virtual Py::Object sequence_concat( const Py::Object &j );
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virtual Py::Object sequence_slice( int i, int j );
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// define python methods of this object
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Py::Object amethod (const Py::Tuple& args);
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Py::Object value (const Py::Tuple& args);
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Py::Object assign (const Py::Tuple& args);
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To initialize the type you provide a static method that you can call from some module's
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initializer. This method sets the name, doc string, and indicates which behaviors it
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supports. It then adds the methods.</p>
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void range::init_type()
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behaviors().name("range");
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behaviors().doc("range objects: start, stop, step");
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behaviors().supportRepr();
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behaviors().supportGetattr();
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behaviors().supportSequenceType();
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add_varargs_method("amethod", &range::amethod,
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"demonstrate how to document amethod");
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add_varargs_method("assign", &range::assign);
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add_varargs_method("value", &range::value);
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<h3>Version 3 (June 18, 1999)</h3>
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<p>1. CXX compiles with EGCS snapshot 19990616. EGCS requires a standard library class
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random_access_iterator that is not yet available in some other compilers (such as Windows
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VC6). Therefore a new switch:</p>
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<p>STANDARD_LIBRARY_HAS_ITERATOR_TRAITS</p>
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<p>has been added to CXX_Config.h that you may need to toggle if you get an error on the
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two lines that mention random_access_iterator. The current definition is correct for VC6
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and EGCS-19990616. </p>
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<p>2. A new constructor was added to Module to allow construction from a string containing
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the module name. A test was added for this to the demo.</p>
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<h3>Version 2 (Dec. 28, 1998)</h3>
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<p>Fixed definition of extension type to match 1.5.2. This version will presumably not
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compile with older versions of Python. This can be fixed by using the previous version's
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definition. I did not take the time to find out what these new "flags" are for
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nor put in any methods to deal with them.</p>
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<p>This is an experimental set of files for supporting the creation of Python extensions
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<p>Documentation is in progress at <a href="http://xfiles.llnl.gov">http://xfiles.llnl.gov</a>.
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<p>To use CXX you use the header files in Include, such as CXX_Objects.h or
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CXX_Extensions.h. You must include the sources in Src in your sources to supply parts of
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the CXX classes required.</p>
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<p>A demo is included. The Setup file in this directory compiles this demo named
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"example". To try the demo, which is also a test routine, you import example and
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<p>You can also play with the extension object whose constructor is named "range":</p>
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print s[2] # should print 5
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<p>Compilation with Microsoft Visual C++ 5.0 will succeed but only if you have Service
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Pack 3 installed. Compilation has been known to succeed on a Unix system using KCC by
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setenv CCC "KCC -x"
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<p>before running makethis.py.</p>
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<p>There is also a python.cxx file for making a stand-alone Python containing this
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example, as well as a similar file arraytest.cxx for testing Array.</p>
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<p>Comments to barry@barrys-emacs.org, please.</p>
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