[Python-Dev] cffi in stdlib (original) (raw)

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

More information about the Python-Dev mailing list