[Hamlib-developer] Python bindings and tests

[Daniele F. <iu...@gm...>]

Hello,

I'm working on using the Python bindings to add regression tests to
Hamlib. While adding proper unit tests would be nice, we would still
need to test all language bindings, so using the bindings allows us to
also test some parts of Hamlib.

The first step is creating tests to document the current behavior of
the Dummy backends and in future detect regressions:
https://github.com/Hamlib/Hamlib/pull/1726
It is mostly ready for Hamlib 4.7.0 but I might still rebase and/or
force push and there are 2 functions that need fixing.
This has shown a bug (PR #1727) and a missing check for NULL (first
commit of PR #176)) so it has been useful.

The next step could be modifying the bindings that currently are void
functions (which means return None to Python callers) to return
RIG_OK/RIG_E* as appropriate. This could also be for 4.7.0 because it
is backward compatible if we keep the rig_error property.

There are open issues about adding some functionality (to Python),
these could go in Hamlib 4.8.0.

Then the bindings could be changed to be more Pythonic or maybe the
other language bindings could need changes.

Comments and opinions are welcome. Do you know of other projects that
have language bindings that could serve as an example?

-- 
73 de IU5HKX Daniele