I've been researching the topic of using C++ code in Python, but haven't found a generic clean flexible way to wrap C++ library in the Python package.
The question is whether it's possible to use existing complex C++ library to create a regular Python library, that can be called exactly like native Python libraries, such as NumPy or SciPy. If yes, any references would be much appreciated. If there are examples/tutorials available - it would be even more useful.
Thanks
There are many, many ways. Boost Python, http://www.boost.org/doc/libs/1_57_0/libs/python/doc/ , is very C++-specific and exploits C++ templates to the hilt (like all of Boost!-). Part of more general (less C++ specific) approaches include manual C coding of Python extensions, per https://docs.python.org/3/extending/extending.html ; SWIG, per http://www.swig.org/Doc1.3/SWIGPlus.html ; Cython, per http://docs.cython.org/src/userguide/wrapping_CPlusPlus.html ; ... and no doubt others I haven't come across yet.
The very existence of so many strong, actively maintained alternatives, hints that there's no "one size fits all" here! If you're a template wizard I bet you'll swear by Boost; if you're not, I guess you're more likely to swear at it -- and so on, and so forth.
Personally, I tend to end up using Cython (or even just ctypes!-) for experimenting, manual extension coding when I decide I want to do a lot of Python work using a certain C++ library (and performance is crucial) -- and SWIG at work, because that's the standard there. Haven't seriously used Boost in far too long -- a refresh on it goes on my not-so-tiny todo list for when my spare time gets more copious...:-).
