cslug 0.1.0

Advantages

• C code can be just plain high school level C. Even a hello world extension module is some 40 lines of incomprehensible macros. This does not apply to Cython.

• Binaries are not linked against Python and are therefore not tied to a specific Python version. A Python extension module needs to be recompiled for every minor version of Python (3.6, 3.7, 3.8, 3.9) and for every platform (Windows, macOS, Linux) whereas a cslug binary need only be compiled for every platform.

• You can use virtually any C compiler. Python extension modules must be built with clang on macOS and MSVC on Windows.

Disadvantages

• The wrapping Python code is less automated. A Python extension module looks and feels like a native Python module out the box whereas a small wrapper function is generally required for ctypes.

• You can’t use native Python types such as list or dict within C code. However, using such types will generally reduce performance down to near pure Python levels anyway.

Shared Caveats

Before you commit yourself to any non Pure-Python you should bear in mind:

• You should ship wheels for every platform you wish to support. Otherwise, users of your code will have to install a C compiler to run it. This means that you either need access to all platforms, or you will have to setup Continuous Integration to build you package on a cloud server.

• Linux wheels must be built on a manylinux Docker image in order to be compatible with all distributions of Linux.

• Unless your users have the relevant security thrice disabled, uninstalled, blocked and scraped off the hard drive, recent macOS will block or delete any binary file you produce unless you throw them some money and get it code-signed.