SWIG/scripting extensions

[Kevin Huber <khuber yuck net>]

I don't know how many of you read Dr. Dobbs Journal, but there was an
interesting article about the SWIG scripting extension tool in the
February, 1998 issue.

Basically, SWIG lets you construct prototypes for C/C++ functions and
then it will generate the interface code to the chosen scripting
language without you having to worry much about the underlying
technical details of adding extensions to that scripting language.

I can see several benefits for using SWIG with the GNOME project:
    * unified extensions such that a single GNOME-capable scripting library 
      can be written and then interfaces generated for several 
      different scripting languages
    * it supports the output of guile, perl4, perl5, python, and tcl
    * you can add modules for additional languages (for example, someone
      could create an extension for IDL)

Down side:  C++ based (I personally like C++, but this may deter some
           people)

Reference: lynx http://www.cs.utah.edu/~beazley/SWIG/

Cool stuff!

-Kevin

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