[vtkusers] vtk and python - some questions.

[David Gobbi]

On Tue, 24 Oct 2000, Prabhu Ramachandran wrote:

> hi,
> 
> 	I sent this message on Friday but I have no idea why it didnt
> show up on the list.  Please excuse me if the original mail actually
> shows up again later! :)
> 
>         My following paragraph may sound offensive, please do not take
> it personally.  I am merely stating the state of affairs as I see
> them.
> 
>         As the python vtk users are aware, the vtk bindings for python
> are far from perfect.  They certainly function and one can work around
> some of the problems and actually do pretty nice things.  However,
> there are a large number of things that are not ok.  Primarily, the
> vtk python objects do not behave as proper python objects at all.

The same is true for all of Python's internal types.  A python list, for
example, is not a python 'object' and doesn't behave the same way as one.
There have been many discussions on comp.lang.python in regards to this
issue (the 'type vs. class' issue).

SWIG gets around this by creating a 'wrapper' class (written in python)
to supplement the underlying Python type.  I really don't think this is
a good idea for VTK -- the python wrappers already include a huge amount
of C++ code... about as much Python code (in addition to the existing C++)
would be neccesary to create 'proper' python objects.
 
>         I believe that at one time SWIG (www.swig.org) was used to
> generate the wrappings.  What were the problems with swig and why is
> it not used any more?

As someone else replied, this was never true.  Here are the reasons for
not using SWIG:
1) the current release of SWIG doesn't have a complete C++ parser, and
   can't be made to understand the macros in vtkSetGet.h
2) because SWIG generates both C++ and Python code for the wrapper
   classes, it would generate more (and less efficient) wrappers than
   the current VTK wrapper generators
3) it wouldn't make sense to use SWIG just for the Python wrappers,
   it is very important (from a maintenance standpoint) that the wrappers
   for the different languages are generated in a consistent manner, to
   ensure that it isn't too much of a hassle for Ken, Will et all to
   deal with when they have to

>         There are quite a few new tools that help making proper python
> bindings for c++ libraries.  ExtensionClass, CXX etc. come to mind.
> Most notably, there is a new tool called py_cpp (the name may change)
> that eases wrapping c++ classes to python.  py_cpp is under active
> development and is available here
> 
>         http://people.ne.mediaone.net/abrahams/downloads/py_cpp.html
> 
>         I was wondering if we could use py_cpp and modify the current
> wrapper scripts to use it automatically.  Would this be possible to
> do?  If it is, could someone in the know please provide some hints on
> the auto generation of wrappers?  One has to typically write very
> little boilerplate code to wrap the classes.  One does require the
> boost libraries though.

See point (3) above.  Here are two questions for you:
1) If it is easy to use these tools to generate Python wrappers for VTK,
   then why not provide us with a demonstration?  I really would like to
   see better Python wrappers, myself.
2) If you are concerned about the quality of the existing Python wrappers,
   why not take the time to contribute improvements to them?  You've
   provided several great suggestions in the past, but I've only had time
   implement a couple of them myself. 

You've contributed a great deal to the VTK community in the past (and
please continue to do so!) and I certainly didn't write this to dampen
your desire to improve the python/VTK situation!  But for now, I'm going
to continue to focus on the existing Python wrappers until I am
presented with an alternative set of operational Python/VTK wrappers.

 - David

--
  David Gobbi, MSc                    dgobbi at irus.rri.on.ca
  Advanced Imaging Research Group
  Robarts Research Institute, University of Western Ontario