[vtk-developers] Wrappers and signed char

[David Gobbi]

Prabhu Ramachandran wrote:

>>"Ken" == Ken Martin <ken.martin at kitware.com> writes:
>>    Ken> You can wrap VTK with SWIG using Cable (a C++ wrapper based
>>    Ken> on GCC and SWIG) This is how we wrap ITK. Having said that
>>    Ken> I'm not sure if VTK would wrap to your satisfaction without
>>    Ken> some additional customization. Stock SWIG isn't going to cut
>>    Ken> it.
>>
>>Well, SWIG has come a long way.  I think that at this time it supports
>>enough of C++ to comfortably wrap VTK (may not be ITK but surely VTK).
>>The only big problems I could think of would be getting the reference
>>counting done "right".  However, the current VTK wrappers are good and
>>work well.  So, it isn't broke, why fix it?  However, SWIG-VTK would
>>probably make for an interesting and fun summer project.
>>    
>>
Yeah, I would be adverse to replacing the VTK wrappers unless the 
replacement
provided the same high level of functionality as the current VTK wrappers.
Fortunately much of the functionality is in vtkPythonUtil, vtkTclUtil, etc.
so replacing the wrapper generator and keeping all the extra goodies is 
possible,
in theory at least.

A much better route to follow, though, is to improve the 
interoperability between
the VTK wrappers, SWIG-wrapped code, and Cable-wrapped code. A few people
have worked on this in the past, but it is still an open issue.

- David