I would like to implement a C / C++ library from a .dll file into a Python script to control a piece of i/o equipment called ClipX by HBM (in case anyone needs help with this in the future).
The manufacturer gives an example C implementation, and an example C++ implementation. In the C example, the Connect() function returns some pointer, which is used in subsequent read/write functions. In the C++ example, a ClipX class is used to establish the connection, and read/write functions are methods in that class. I've simplified the code for the purposes of this question.
Basically, I want to connect() to the device, and at some later point read() from it. From what I've read, it seems like Cython would be a good way to wrap connect() and read() as separate functions, and import them as a module into Python. My questions are:
For the C implementation, would I be able to pass MHandle pointer back to Python, after connecting, for later use (i.e. calling the read function)? Would the pointer even have any meaning, being used later in a different function call?
For the C++ implementation, could the dev object be passed to the Python code, to be later passed back for a
Read()? Can you do that with arbitrary objects?
I am a mechanical engineer, sorry if this is gibberish or wildly uninformed. Any guidance is very much appreciated.
C Code:
/*From .h file*/
----------------------------------------------------
struct sClipX {
void *obj;
};
typedef struct sClipX * MHandle;
ClipX_API MHandle __stdcall Connect(const char *);
----------------------------------------------------
/*End .h file*/
int main()
{
const char * IP = "172.21.104.76";
MHandle m=Connect(IP);
Read(m, 0x4428);
}
C++ Code:
int main(){
ClipX dev = ClipX();
dev.Connect("172.21.104.76");
dev.Read(0x4428);
