[vtk-developers] Announcing new features of python wrappers

[David Gobbi]

Hi All,

I pushed several improvements to the python wrappers this week.

1) Multi-dimensional array arguments.  This adds several vtkMath
methods that were not previously wrapped.  When passing an array, you
can use either a numpy array or a nested list.  Values are returned in
the array, just as they would be in C++.

2) Reference args.  This adds several cell methods that were not
previously wrapped.  To use these methods, pass a vtk.mutable() object
as the arg, and the python wrappers will read the value and then write
to it.  The 'mutable' object is a new VTK-specific python numeric type
that supports assignment.

3) size_t and ssize_t args.  These were not wrapped previously.

4) Typedef'd types as args.  For now, this is only supported for
wrapping within the VTK source tree.  I added all VTK typedefs to the
vtkKitHierarchy.txt files, and these hierarchy files are not yet
exported.

5) Optional args. Any args that are optional in C++ are now optional in Python.

6) Unsigned integer types for array arguments (only for python 2.3 and higher).

7) This change is a few weeks old, but it's worth mentioning: array
args of unknown size (like double[] or *double) are wrapped for the
SetTuple/GetTuple methods of vtkDataArray and its subclasses.

  David