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authorTimothy Pearson <[email protected]>2011-11-22 02:59:34 -0600
committerTimothy Pearson <[email protected]>2011-11-22 02:59:34 -0600
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downloadsip4-tqt-6c4cc3653e8dd7668295f3e659b7eb4dc571b67c.tar.gz
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Initial import of SIP4 for Qt3
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+
+ <div class="section" id="introduction">
+<h1>Introduction<a class="headerlink" href="#introduction" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h1>
+<p>This is the reference guide for SIP 4.10.5. SIP is a tool for
+automatically generating <a class="reference external" href="http://www.python.org">Python</a> bindings for C and
+C++ libraries. SIP was originally developed in 1998 for
+<a class="reference external" href="http://www.riverbankcomputing.com/software/pyqt">PyQt</a> - the Python
+bindings for the Qt GUI toolkit - but is suitable for generating bindings for
+any C or C++ library.</p>
+<p>This version of SIP generates bindings for Python v2.3 or later, including
+Python v3.</p>
+<p>There are many other similar tools available. One of the original such tools
+is <a class="reference external" href="http://www.swig.org">SWIG</a> and, in fact, SIP is so called because it
+started out as a small SWIG. Unlike SWIG, SIP is specifically designed for
+bringing together Python and C/C++ and goes to great lengths to make the
+integration as tight as possible.</p>
+<p>The homepage for SIP is <a class="reference external" href="http://www.riverbankcomputing.com/software/sip">http://www.riverbankcomputing.com/software/sip</a>. Here
+you will always find the latest stable version and the latest version of this
+documentation.</p>
+<p>SIP can also be downloaded from the
+<a class="reference external" href="http://mercurial.selenic.com/">Mercurial</a> repository at
+<a class="reference external" href="http://www.riverbankcomputing.com/hg/sip">http://www.riverbankcomputing.com/hg/sip</a>.</p>
+<div class="section" id="license">
+<h2>License<a class="headerlink" href="#license" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
+<p>SIP is licensed under similar terms as Python itself. SIP is also licensed
+under the GPL (both v2 and v3). It is your choice as to which license you
+use. If you choose the GPL then any bindings you create must be distributed
+under the terms of the GPL.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="section" id="features">
+<h2>Features<a class="headerlink" href="#features" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
+<p>SIP, and the bindings it produces, have the following features:</p>
+<ul class="simple">
+<li>bindings are fast to load and minimise memory consumption especially when
+only a small sub-set of a large library is being used</li>
+<li>automatic conversion between standard Python and C/C++ data types</li>
+<li>overloading of functions and methods with different argument signatures</li>
+<li>support for Python&#8217;s keyword argument syntax</li>
+<li>support for both explicitly specified and automatically generated docstrings</li>
+<li>access to a C++ class&#8217;s protected methods</li>
+<li>the ability to define a Python class that is a sub-class of a C++ class,
+including abstract C++ classes</li>
+<li>Python sub-classes can implement the <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">__dtor__()</span></tt> method which will be
+called from the C++ class&#8217;s virtual destructor</li>
+<li>support for ordinary C++ functions, class methods, static class methods,
+virtual class methods and abstract class methods</li>
+<li>the ability to re-implement C++ virtual and abstract methods in Python</li>
+<li>support for global and class variables</li>
+<li>support for global and class operators</li>
+<li>support for C++ namespaces</li>
+<li>support for C++ templates</li>
+<li>support for C++ exceptions and wrapping them as Python exceptions</li>
+<li>the automatic generation of complementary rich comparison slots</li>
+<li>support for deprecation warnings</li>
+<li>the ability to define mappings between C++ classes and similar Python data
+types that are automatically invoked</li>
+<li>the ability to automatically exploit any available run time type information
+to ensure that the class of a Python instance object matches the class of the
+corresponding C++ instance</li>
+<li>the ability to change the type and meta-type of the Python object used to
+wrap a C/C++ data type</li>
+<li>full support of the Python global interpreter lock, including the ability to
+specify that a C++ function of method may block, therefore allowing the lock
+to be released and other Python threads to run</li>
+<li>support for consolidated modules where the generated wrapper code for a
+number of related modules may be included in a single, possibly private,
+module</li>
+<li>support for the concept of ownership of a C++ instance (i.e. what part of the
+code is responsible for calling the instance&#8217;s destructor) and how the
+ownership may change during the execution of an application</li>
+<li>the ability to generate bindings for a C++ class library that itself is built
+on another C++ class library which also has had bindings generated so that
+the different bindings integrate and share code properly</li>
+<li>a sophisticated versioning system that allows the full lifetime of a C++
+class library, including any platform specific or optional features, to be
+described in a single set of specification files</li>
+<li>the ability to include documentation in the specification files which can be
+extracted and subsequently processed by external tools</li>
+<li>the ability to include copyright notices and licensing information in the
+specification files that is automatically included in all generated source
+code</li>
+<li>a build system, written in Python, that you can extend to configure, compile
+and install your own bindings without worrying about platform specific issues</li>
+<li>support for building your extensions using distutils</li>
+<li>SIP, and the bindings it produces, runs under UNIX, Linux, Windows and
+MacOS/X</li>
+</ul>
+</div>
+<div class="section" id="sip-components">
+<h2>SIP Components<a class="headerlink" href="#sip-components" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
+<p>SIP comprises a number of different components.</p>
+<ul class="simple">
+<li>The SIP code generator (<strong>sip</strong>). This processes <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">.sip</span></tt>
+specification files and generates C or C++ bindings. It is covered in detail
+in <a class="reference external" href="using.html#ref-using"><em>Using SIP</em></a>.</li>
+<li>The SIP header file (<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">sip.h</span></tt>). This contains definitions and data
+structures needed by the generated C and C++ code.</li>
+<li>The SIP module (<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">sip.so</span></tt> or <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">sip.pyd</span></tt>). This is a Python
+extension module that is imported automatically by SIP generated bindings and
+provides them with some common utility functions. See also
+<a class="reference external" href="python_api.html#ref-python-api"><em>Python API for Applications</em></a>.</li>
+<li>The SIP build system (<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">sipconfig.py</span></tt>). This is a pure Python module
+that is created when SIP is configured and encapsulates all the necessary
+information about your system including relevant directory names, compiler
+and linker flags, and version numbers. It also includes several Python
+classes and functions which help you write configuration scripts for your own
+bindings. It is covered in detail in <a class="reference external" href="build_system.html#ref-build-system"><em>The Build System</em></a>.</li>
+<li>The SIP distutils extension (<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">sipdistutils.py</span></tt>). This is a distutils
+extension that can be used to build your extension modules using distutils
+and is an alternative to writing configuration scripts with the SIP build
+system. This can be as simple as adding your .sip files to the list of files
+needed to build the extension module. It is covered in detail in
+<a class="reference external" href="distutils.html#ref-distutils"><em>Building Your Extension with distutils</em></a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</div>
+<div class="section" id="qt-support">
+<h2>Qt Support<a class="headerlink" href="#qt-support" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
+<p>SIP has specific support for the creation of bindings based on Nokia&#8217;s Qt
+toolkit.</p>
+<p>The SIP code generator understands the signal/slot type safe callback mechanism
+that Qt uses to connect objects together. This allows applications to define
+new Python signals, and allows any Python callable object to be used as a slot.</p>
+<p>SIP itself does not require Qt to be installed.</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+
+ </div>
+ </div>
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+ <h3><a href="index.html">Table Of Contents</a></h3>
+ <ul>
+<li><a class="reference external" href="#">Introduction</a><ul>
+<li><a class="reference external" href="#license">License</a></li>
+<li><a class="reference external" href="#features">Features</a></li>
+<li><a class="reference external" href="#sip-components">SIP Components</a></li>
+<li><a class="reference external" href="#qt-support">Qt Support</a></li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+</ul>
+
+ <h4>Previous topic</h4>
+ <p class="topless"><a href="index.html"
+ title="previous chapter">SIP Reference Guide</a></p>
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