Chapter 22. Extending Python

Chapter Topics

• Introduction/Motivation

• Extending Python

  • Create Application Code

  • Wrap Code in Boilerplate

  • Compile

  • Import and Test

  • Reference Counting

  • Threading and the GIL

• Related Topics

In this chapter, we will discuss how to take code written externally and integrate that functionality into the Python programming environment. We will first give you motivation for doing this, then take you through the step-by-step process on how to do it. We should point out, though, that because extensions are primarily done in the C language, all of the example code you will see in this section is pure C but is easily portable to C++.