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[Python-Dev] cffi in stdlib

Paul Moore p.f.moore at gmail.com
Tue Feb 26 19:14:26 CET 2013 
On 26 February 2013 16:34, Eli Bendersky <eliben at gmail.com> wrote:
> I'm cautiously +0.5 because I'd really like to see a strong comparison case
> being made vs. ctypes. I've used ctypes many times and it was easy and
> effortless (well, except the segfaults when wrong argument types are
> declared :-). I'll be really interesting in seeing concrete examples that
> demonstrate how CFFI is superior.

I'm probably the same, mainly because I've successfully used ctypes in
the past, but I've never used cffi. That's something I need to
rectify.

One point which I *think* is correct, but which I don't see noted
anywhere. Am I right that cffi needs a C compiler involved in the
process, at least somewhere? If that's the case, then it is not a
suitable option for at least one use case that I have, writing quick
hacks involving the Windows API on a machine that doesn't have a C
compiler installed. Another possible case would be writing zip-safe
code - if cffi involves a compiled C extension, it won't work when
loaded from a zipfile.

In general, a proper, unbiased comparison between cffi and ctypes
would be useful.

BTW, I assume that the intention is that both cffi and ctypes remain
available indefinitely? Nobody's looking to deprecate ctypes?

Paul
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