overview :: tutorial :: reference :: faq
( Work in progress: COM :: COM sample )
ctypes is a Python package to create and manipulate C data types
in Python, and to call functions in dynamic link libraries/shared
dlls. It allows wrapping these libraries in pure Python.
It works on Windows, Linux and MacOS X (the latter two require that your machine is supported by libffi).
Yasushi Masuda has translated the docs into japanese.
Bradley Schatz has started porting ctypes to java. The code is
already in
CVS,
and here are the preliminary docs fresh from
CVS.
There is now a mailing list for discussion of ctypes development, and a Wiki.
ctypes version 0.6.2 has been released. The changes are
summarized here.
I am using it and much prefer it to the calldll/windll ... easy to use, well documented ... - Ben C
Your ctypes stuff is awesome! Thanks so much for making it. Almost every time I write a C extension it's so I can call some Windows function - I don't know if I'll need to do that much anymore and that makes me very happy. :) - Dave Brueck
ctypes! With stuff like Pysco and Pyrex maturing, the main reason I was still writing C extensions was to access various Windows APIs (especially those not covered in the Win32 Python extensions), but no longer - I may never write another "wrapper" extension again and that makes me very, very happy. :) - Dave Brueck
I like the idea of using ctypes for creating highly native windows applications. So far I have been using wxPython, but that library is so big that it adds 3-4 seconds latency to the startup of the python :-), Also memory footprint is kind of huge. - Henk Punt
... and I just started using ctypes tonight. Good old calldll/windll won't be in my toolkit much longer. :) It's a very exciting time for Python. Between Psyco and ctypes, writing code in C is becoming quite rare for me! - Jimmy Retzlaff
ctypes is very cool! Great piece of work. - Just van Rossum
ctypes version 0.6.0 has been released, and the
documentation has been updated.
There have been some (also incompatible) changes, but I'm quite pleased with the result: ctypes is much more consistent than before.
A proof-of-concept COM framework has been implemented, and added to the package. It is in an early stage, and I would like experienced COM developers to look at it, and submit feedback.
ctypes now works on Windows, Linux and MacOSX. Thanks
to Robin Becker and Just van Rossum for their help.
There is now a mailing list which should be used to discuss the
usage and further development of ctypes. More info can be found
on the list info page.
ctypes Development now takes place on sourceforge's ctypes
project page.
I've started a FAQ which should be consulted in case of problems.
An extensive tutorial is included in the source distribution, but also available online. You should also read the sample files in the source distribution.
Recent releases can be downloaded in the sourceforge files section.
The source archives contain all the sources, the documentation you
are reading here, and sample files in a samples subdirectory.
Looking at the sample files is highly recommended in addition to
reading the documentation.
The binary Windows distribution only everything except the documentation, the unittests, and some example scripts.
These files are distributed under the MIT license.