
Extending and Embedding the Python Interpreter
**********************************************

Release:
   3.1

Date:
   June 11, 2011

This document describes how to write modules in C or C++ to extend the
Python interpreter with new modules.  Those modules can define new
functions but also new object types and their methods.  The document
also describes how to embed the Python interpreter in another
application, for use as an extension language. Finally, it shows how
to compile and link extension modules so that they can be loaded
dynamically (at run time) into the interpreter, if the underlying
operating system supports this feature.

This document assumes basic knowledge about Python.  For an informal
introduction to the language, see *The Python Tutorial*.  *The Python
Language Reference* gives a more formal definition of the language.
*The Python Standard Library* documents the existing object types,
functions and modules (both built-in and written in Python) that give
the language its wide application range.

For a detailed description of the whole Python/C API, see the separate
*Python/C API Reference Manual*.

* Extending Python with C or C++
  * A Simple Example
  * Intermezzo: Errors and Exceptions
  * Back to the Example
  * The Module's Method Table and Initialization Function
  * Compilation and Linkage
  * Calling Python Functions from C
  * Extracting Parameters in Extension Functions
  * Keyword Parameters for Extension Functions
  * Building Arbitrary Values
  * Reference Counts
  * Writing Extensions in C++
  * Providing a C API for an Extension Module
* Defining New Types
  * The Basics
  * Type Methods
* Building C and C++ Extensions with distutils
  * Distributing your extension modules
* Building C and C++ Extensions on Windows
  * A Cookbook Approach
  * Differences Between Unix and Windows
  * Using DLLs in Practice
* Embedding Python in Another Application
  * Very High Level Embedding
  * Beyond Very High Level Embedding: An overview
  * Pure Embedding
  * Extending Embedded Python
  * Embedding Python in C++
  * Linking Requirements