[Swig-devel] Qt5 in python

[Fabien C. <fab...@gm...>]

*Hi,

I would like to see Qt5 available in python under LGPL license.

There is currently 2 projects:

   - PyQt

It’s a GPL or commercial project that already support Qt5.
Use SIP as binding tool.

   - PySide

It’s an LGPL project, but there is currently no support for Qt5. Only Qt4.7
and Qt4.8 are supported. We currently use this one, but there is nothing
planned for Qt5 support.
Use Shiboken as binding tool.

I just started a discussion with PySide guys to propose to use SWIG for the
binding tool. You could see the discussion:
http://lists.qt-project.org/pipermail/pyside/2013-January/000957.html

As explained, we created a prototype of Qt binding in SWIG. There is a lot
of Qt specific things to deal with, like Signal/Slot, QObject parenting
ownership, Qt Properties, QVariant, and custom classes for string, vectors,
etc. The prototype works even if there is a lot of missing glue to make it
really pythonic.

One problem to continue in this direction is binaries sizes. They
previously used Boost.Python and switch to Shiboken for this reason. I
don’t see the difference on the principle between Swig for python and
shiboken. Both use CPython in the same way. Do you have an idea, why there
is a big difference on binaries sizes?
Maybe it’s only a problem in our rules... but I don’t see how it could be
that.

In Release:
QtCore.pyd
- shiboken: 2 200 Ko
- sip: 2 103 Ko
- swig: 6 118 Ko
QtGui.pyd
- shiboken: 8 468 Ko
- sip: 7 500 Ko
- swig: 25 428 Ko

In Debug:
QtCore_d.pyd
- shiboken: 5 927 Ko
- swig: 10 325 Ko
QtGui_d.pyd
- shiboken: 26 825 Ko
- swig: 44 148 Ko

Regards,
Fabien*