[GNC-dev] Python: About Wrapping SWIG Objects (GncNumeric)

c.holtermann at gmx.de c.holtermann at gmx.de
Thu Aug 23 10:52:28 EDT 2018


Am 2018-08-06 16:14, schrieb John Ralls:
>> On Aug 6, 2018, at 5:19 AM, c.holtermann at gmx.de wrote:
>> 
>> Am 2018-08-06 11:35, schrieb Geert Janssens:
>>> Op maandag 6 augustus 2018 05:32:27 CEST schreef John Ralls:
>>>> > On Aug 5, 2018, at 5:17 PM, c.holtermann at gmx.de wrote:
>>>> >
>>>> > Hello,
>>>> >
>>>> > after some time I get back to the gnucash python bindings.
>>>> >
>>>> > I worked on a str method for GncNumeric. It's in the example_script
>>>> > dir
>>>> > (https://github.com/Gnucash/gnucash/blob/maint/bindings/python/example_sc
>>>> > ripts/str_methods.py) I changed it to python3.
>>> I read at the beginning of this file you chose to implement it as an 
>>> example
>>> script which - if found useful - could be added to gnucash_core.
>>> You have my blessing to include it in gnucash_core :)
>>>> > Well I found it interesting to think these things through. Maybe someone
>>>> > can tell me about the mysterious "later on" in the cited comment. At this
>>>> > point I find it useful to have a way from the instance to the wrapping
>>>> > object through some kind of link as I suggested in the patch to
>>>> > function_class.
>>>> Christoph,
>>>> The person who wrote the first two lines of that, Mark Jenkins, was 
>>>> the
>>>> original source of the Python bindings. He was never a regular dev, 
>>>> he just
>>>> got 16 patches committed between 2007 and 2012, 10 of which touched 
>>>> the
>>>> python bindings. Your history with them is almost as long as his--in 
>>>> fact
>>>> you have *12* commits--and pretty much no one else has done anything
>>>> serious with them.
>>> Hopefully Mark is still around on the list to clarify.
>>>> In other words, if anyone knows, it’s you!
>>> True :)
>>>> Just to add some more confusion, there’s now a C++ class GncNumeric 
>>>> that
>>>> handles the actual implementation of many of the gnc_numeric.* 
>>>> functions. I
>>>> believe that SWIG can’t see it, only the C wrapper functions are 
>>>> exposed to
>>>> SWIG.
>>> It would be a very useful experiment to wrap the C++ GncNumeric class 
>>> directly
>>> rather than it's c wrapper gnc_numeric_xxx. Python doesn't need the c
>>> compatibility layer it represents.
>>> Geert
>> 
>> Geert,
>> 
>> unfortunately your mail went to my spam folder for whatever reason. 
>> Trying to
>> do C++ bindings for python sounds very interesting. I'd like to try 
>> that when
>> I find the time for a simple example type. I don't know if GncNumeric 
>> would
>> be a good candidate. I'll have a look at it. Thanks for the blessing 
>> :-)
> 
> Python has its own rational numbers so the only thing the Python
> bindings need is a way to convert to-and-from that to GncNumeric for
> communicating with the rest of the GnuCash API.
> 
> I suggest QofSession as the first C++ class to play with SWIGing. It’s
> fairly simple and using it is the first step in using the bindings.
> 
> Regards,
> John Ralls

Hello,

I've created an experimental branch in my fork of gnucash to create swig 
python
bindings for c++ files. As suggested I started with QofSessionImpl for 
which I
have created an example file to create a file and an account. I also 
included
GncNumeric. There's no example for that yet. It's very raw. I disabled 
some errors.
It's more of a proof of concept but it's a step on the way.
https://github.com/c-holtermann/gnucash/tree/ch-python

regards,

Christoph Holtermann


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