SWIG to call python code from within c

Question

I have written an mpi app in c that sorts n positive random integers. I would like to put a graphical front end on it and wonder if there is a way to use Python's graphics library via SWIG to do this. I suppose I could resort to TCP or UDP sockets. I have no experience with SWIG or sockets but have a sense that sockets are fairly complex and do know Python.

I'd appreciate some help in going down this path, in terms of code examples and/or learning materials or just some written comments from readers of this list.

Thanks, Scott

Answer 1

Your question is extremely ambiguous, but I'm assuming you have a C program and you want to do some plotting using a Python library.

It looks like you just need to embed the Python interpreter. There is an official guide on embedding.

It's pretty straight forward:

#include <Python.h>

int
main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
  Py_SetProgramName(argv[0]);  /* optional but recommended */
  Py_Initialize();
  PyRun_SimpleString("from time import time,ctime\n"
                     "print 'Today is',ctime(time())\n");
  Py_Finalize();
  return 0;
}

Just enter your plotting script there. MPI makes no difference.