Part V: Integration

This part of the book explores Python's interfaces for communicating with software components written in other programming languages. Its emphasis is on mixing Python with programs written in C and C++, but other integration techniques are also introduced along the way. This part contains two chapters that address the two primary modes of Python/C integration:

Chapter 19. This chapter presents tools that allow Python scripts to call out to C components. C components take the form of new modules or object types. This chapter also covers SWIG -- a system that automatically generates the glue code needed to export C and C++ libraries to Python scripts and hides much of the complexity underlying extensions.

Chapter 20. This chapter presents tools that allow C programs to execute Python scripts. These tools live in the Python runtime API -- a collection of functions exposed by the Python interpreter and linked in to your C/C++ program. This chapter concludes with a look at other integration topics and systems -- JPython, COM, CORBA, and so on.

This part of the book assumes that you know how to read C programs, and is useful mostly to developers responsible for implementing application integration layers that route control to and from Python scripts. Yet because C components are at the heart of many Python systems, a basic understanding of integration concepts can be useful even to scripters who code strictly in Python.