How does python call OS?

[Siegfried Heintze]

I just finished reading a chapter in "Python Programming on Win32" and tried
out the pythonwin scribble application. I'm not sure if I got it right
because I could not open a new document. I tried to download the source code
as referenced in the chm file but it is corrupted. I cut and pasted from my
softcopy of the book.

I see the next sub-chapter on wxWindows for python and the previous
sub-chapter on TK. This is looking a lot like other scripting languages
(such as perl and groovy and even java). Can python call anything directly
or does someone have to write a DLL in C/C++ that calls the function first?
Thanks!
Siegfried

[Steven D'Aprano]

On Sat, 13 Sep 2008 23:51:39 -0700, Siegfried Heintze wrote:

I see the next sub-chapter on wxWindows for python and the previous
sub-chapter on TK. This is looking a lot like other scripting languages
(such as perl and groovy and even java). Can python call anything
directly or does someone have to write a DLL in C/C++ that calls the
function first? Thanks!

I'm not sure I understand your question correctly, but Python can call
external programs in a number of ways. I believe the "best" way to do so
is with the subprocess module.

--
Steven

[Gary Herron]

Siegfried Heintze wrote:

I just finished reading a chapter in "Python Programming on Win32" and tried
out the pythonwin scribble application. I'm not sure if I got it right
because I could not open a new document. I tried to download the source code
as referenced in the chm file but it is corrupted. I cut and pasted from my
softcopy of the book.

I see the next sub-chapter on wxWindows for python and the previous
sub-chapter on TK. This is looking a lot like other scripting languages
(such as perl and groovy and even java). Can python call anything directly
or does someone have to write a DLL in C/C++ that calls the function first?
Thanks!
Siegfried

See the ctypes module for a method of calling any C callable function in
and DLL.

Gary Herron

[Grant Edwards]

On 2008-09-14, Siegfried Heintze <si*******@heintze.comwrote:

I just finished reading a chapter in "Python Programming on Win32" and tried
out the pythonwin scribble application. I'm not sure if I got it right
because I could not open a new document. I tried to download the source code
as referenced in the chm file but it is corrupted. I cut and pasted from my
softcopy of the book.

I see the next sub-chapter on wxWindows for python and the
previous sub-chapter on TK. This is looking a lot like other
scripting languages (such as perl and groovy and even java).
Can python call anything directly

No. For example, I don't believe there's any way for standard
C-Python to make system calls on Linux. [Thought ISTR that
somebody has written an extension module that doess that.]

or does someone have to write a DLL in C/C++ that calls the
function first?

Can you be more explicit? What sort of "function" are you
talking about?

As for calling functions in libraries, the library doesn't have
to be in C/C++. Python can make library calls written in any
language (Fortran, Ada, Pascal, etc.) as long as the language
uses a supportted API. Python can also execute external
programs.

--
Grant