Re: [newbie] Question on embedding/extending with boost::python

Brett Calcott wrote:
> "Dirk Gerrits" <dirk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> > Brett Calcott wrote:
> >
> > > I had previously embedded python in my c++ app so that I could
> > > script my agents, but the result was very slow as this effectively
> > > did this (vastly simplified)
[snip]
> > > The calls to python are in the inner loop and this is slow.
> >
> > Well I suppose you could expose a visual_stuff_updating_iterator to
> > Python, but extending is of course a much easier and cleaner.
>
>
> Not sure I follow what you mean here..

Well I just thought you could let Python drive the loop by exposing the 
agents.begin()/end() range as an iterator, possibly with the visual 
stuff updating built into it. But if it would be more efficient at all, 
it would probably not be by much. As I said, your current solution is 
much nicer (and efficient).

[snip]

> > I'm not sure I follow. Is engine.cycle() still doing a
> > a->update_yourself_via_python() for every agent? Then where's the
> > speedup compared to the embedded approach?
>
> No, it's not. The engine.cycle() function never calls back to python.
>
> Let me try and clarify.
[snip]
> To summarise -- that big change is in how I look at python. Before, I
> saw C++ as a serious development framework, and python as a scripting
> language for doing the little bits of my app that I wanted to change
> quickly. Now, I see python as an incredibly fast development framework,
> and C++ as something to make the computationally intensive bits of my
> app go faster.
>
> So I things have sort of been stood on their head.  I still love C++,
> but I can make stuff happen so much more quickly in python.

I think most (all?) using this SIG can agree to that. :)

Regards,
Dirk Gerrits