dolfin team mailing list archive

[Faheem Mitha <faheem@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Tue, 4 Oct 2005, Anders Logg wrote:

> You have to pick something.
>
> What would the benefits be with Boost Python?

I'm not familiar with SWIG, so I can't offer a direct comparison.

However, using Boost Python one can do automatic arbitrary user-defined 
conversion between Python and C++ types. One has to write to write the 
conversion function.

Also, it is possible to mimic C++ class structure, including polymophism 
on a fine level using Python, with no limits other than those defined by 
Python's limitations, as far as I know.

Also, things like smart pointers are handled automatically, and in other 
cases where ownership is not well defined it is possible to define 
ownership semantics.

See the Boost Python tutorial at 
http://www.boost.org/libs/python/doc/tutorial/doc/html/index.html.

Also, see http://www.boost-consulting.com/writing/bpl.html

The arbitary user-defined conversion stuff is not documented as far as I 
know, but is easy to use.

                                                                Faheem.