Re: [PyOpenGL-Users] OPENGL

[Mike C. F. <mcf...@vr...>]

JoN wrote:
> Quoting Jason Ward <ir...@gm...>:
>
>   
>> Python is extensible with C++.
>> So why not just take the gl.h glu.h and friends
>> and mod them so python can call them?
>>     
>
> Isn't that exactly what PyOpenGL does?
>   
It's sort-of what PyOpenGL does.  I believe Jason was asking why we 
don't use C directly to gain speed.  The answer is basically that the 
maintenance headaches outweigh the performance gain (to the extent that 
the system would likely have been abandoned if we'd kept on with the 
hand-coded, and then SWIG-coded wrappers).
>> wouldn't this be faster than your wrapper around ctypes?
>>     
>
> Its hard to imagine anything faster than ctypes, as it binds calls directly to
> the binary code in the .so/.dll's 
>   
Actually, ctypes is quite slow compared to e.g. SWIG.  That's because it 
does a lot more work at run-time for every call than a SWIG or similar 
system does.  OpenGL-ctypes (PyOpenGL) is even slower because it has to 
provide the array and similar semantics that aren't available in ctypes' 
core.

Have fun,
Mike

-- 
________________________________________________
  Mike C. Fletcher
  Designer, VR Plumber, Coder
  http://www.vrplumber.com
  http://blog.vrplumber.com