libpy

A C++ framework for working with the CPython API. This is a work in progress.

The general goal of this project is to reduce the boiler plate in CPython extension modules by building CPython exception handling and reference counting into the type system. This combined with method chaining and operator overloading should provide an experience much closer to writing python directly while still giving us the speed and control of C++.

For example, let's look at the following code in Python and then see how to write this in libpy versus the normal CPython API.

'ayy.lmao'.find('.') + 1 + 2.5

With libpy this is almost as expressive as python:

py::object f() {
    using py::operator""_p;
    return "ayy.lmao"_p.getattr("find"_p)("."_p) + 1_p + 2.5_p;
}

Here we see some of the features of libpy, like user defined literals for python types and operator overloading. We also see that we can write a normal expression without manually managing reference counts or explicit null checks. Compare that to the verbosity of the normal CPython API.

PyObject *f() {
    PyObject *al;
    PyObject *dot;
    PyObject *one;
    PyObject *twopfive;
    PyObject *idx;
    PyObject *tmp;
    PyObject *result;

    if (!(al = PyUnicode_FromString("ayy.lmao"))) {
        return NULL;
    }

    if (!(dot = PyUnicode_FromString("."))) {
        Py_DECREF(al);
        return NULL;
    }

    idx = PyObject_CallMethodObjArgs(al, "find", dot, NULL);
    Py_DECREF(al)
    Py_DECREF(dot);

    if (!idx) {
        return NULL;
    }

    if (!(one = PyLong_FromLong(1))) {
        Py_DECREF(idx);
        return NULL;
    }

    tmp = PyNumber_Add(idx, one);
    Py_DECREF(idx);
    Py_DECREF(one);

    if (!tmp) {
        return NULL;
    }

    if (!(twopfive = PyFloat_FromDouble(2.5))) {
        Py_DECREF(tmp);
        return NULL;
    }

    result = PyNumber_Add(tmpa, twopfive);
    Py_DECREF(tmpa);
    Py_DECREF(twopfive);

    return result;
}

The libpy version automatically handles all of the null checking and will properly forward exceptions. It also manages decrefing the intermediates even in the case of failures.

Building

libpy is meant to be built as a shared object to be linked against by extension modules. To build libpy.so simply run make. This requires a C++ compiler capable of building C++14, we recommend GCC.

Tests

The tests live in the test directory in the project root. These are broken into separate files named test_*.cc. The entry point lives in test/main.cc. To build and run the tests run make test.

License

libpy is dual licensed under the terms of the LGPLv3 and the GPLv2. You may choose to use libpy under the terms of either of these two licenses.