[Pyrex] Should Pyrex be in standard Python?

[Bob Ippolito]

On Jan 21, 2004, at 10:05 PM, Paul Prescod wrote:

> Greg Ewing wrote:
>
>> Paul Prescod:
>>> I've written up a proposal for adding Pyrex to Python as the 
>>> standard way of building the extension modules that ship with 
>>> Python. I'd like feedback from Pyrex users and Greg before I broach 
>>> the issue with python-dev.
>> This is a staggering idea!
>> I'd say more, but the scope and implications of it leave me
>> a bit speechless just at the moment...
>
> Pyrex is a staggering idea.
>
> From the point of view of a C programmer it could be thought of as C 
> with garbage collection, objects, exceptions and a nice syntax (i.e. 
> for loops).
>
> For a C++ programmer it could be thought of as C++ without all of the 
> cruft that nobody likes or can figure out.
>
> For a Java programmer it could be a more dynamic Java with 
> integrations into
>
> For a Python programmer it is a) an easy way of making Python 
> extensions, b) a way of MASSIVELY speeding up Python code. It should 
> be a tool in every Python programmer's toolbox.
>
> I believe that Pyrex should be MUCH more popular than it is. It just 
> lacks marketing. I'm putting together a few articles and talks (anyone 
> else talking at PyCon?) to start filling that gap. I've been told that 
> there are several outlets for magazine articles.

Well, I've used Pyrex to wrap a few Apple frameworks:
	http://undefined.org/python/

It was just the quickest path.. bgen is clunky, ctypes is 
unstable/unpredictable, and the C API raw is too much typing (in any 
sense of the word ;).

What I want for Pyrex is a .h -> Pyrex translator (function prototypes, 
enums, structs).. it would save me a lot of regexing in vim.  Something 
like bgen, with a different output.  I tried to write one once, but 
it's hard and I don't really like text processing (was trying to 
tokenize, not regex like bgen) so I've shelved it for now.

I may or may not be talking at PyCon about Mac stuff: 
http://undefined.org/python/MacPython-60min_v4.html

I submitted a proposal, has not yet been voted either way at this point 
(AFAICT).

-bob