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PYTHON bindings for DCOP
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========================
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These are the new-style Python DCOP bindings. The way in which the bindings are
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implemented has changed since KDE 3.1.1.
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How they work
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=============
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The code is divided into two parts:
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pcop.cpp - the C++ interface between Python and DCOP - generates shared library pcop.so
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which can be imported by Python
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pydcop.py - the Python interface to pcop.cpp
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pcop.cpp includes a header file marshal_funcs.h, which is generated from
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a data file called marshal_funcs.data by a converter script, gen_marshal_funcs.py
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marshal_funcs.data contains the basic code necessary to marshal and demarshal the different
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types that DCOP can handle. For example, it codes how to convert a TQString for use by Python
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(in this case, a Python string) and the reverse - what the user may supply in Python when
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DCOP requires a TQString. In addition to the fundemental types, more complex QT classes are
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coded, such as TQRect (which converts to a Python tuple ( (x1,y1), (x2,y2) ) ).
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Documentation is auto-generated out of marshal_funcs.data, creating file marshal_funcs_doc.html,
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which details how each DCOP type (e.g. TQString, TQRect, int, QCStringList) is represented in Python.
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In this implementation, each DCOP type is represented by a basic Python type - numeric, tuple, etc.
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There are no "QT bindings" necessary.
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These bindings allow you to code Python to act as a DCOP client (querying and/or controlling
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other DCOP applications), or as a DCOP server. This means that you can DCOP-enable Python applications
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even if they are not QT based.
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If you want to use DCOP in the context of a Python QT application, then there are DCOP bindings included in
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the PyQT and PyKDE bindings available from:
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http://www.riverbankcomputing.co.uk/
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Examples
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========
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There are some example Python programs in the test directory.
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Known problems
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=============
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There is currently a bug which means you must import both pcop and pydcop in your Python programs.
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This means that a Python program using dcoppython must include:
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import pcop
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import pydcop
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In that order. If you don't import pcop, a seg fault occurs when the interpreter exits. This, of course, will be
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fixed once I find out what the hell's going on.
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Authors
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=======
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The original Python DCOP bindings were written by Torben Weis (weis@kde.org).
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The current implementation, based on Torben's worked, was written by Julian Rockey (kde@jrockey.com).
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Julian is also the current maintainer.
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