Using embedded C library in Python emulation

Short Question

Which would be easier to emulate (in Python) a complex (SAE J1939) communication stack from an existing embedded C library:

1) Full port - meaning manually convert all of the C functions to python modules

2) Wrap the stack in a Python wrapper - meaning call the real c code in Python

Background Information

I have already written small portions of this stack in Python, however they are very non-trival to implement with 100% coverage. Because of this very reason, we have recently purchased an off the shelf SAE J1939 stack for our embedded platforms. To clarify, I know that portions touching the hardware layer will have to be re-created and mapped to the PC's CAN drivers.

I am hoping to find someone here on SO that has or even looked开发者_StackOverflow中文版 into porting a 5k LOC C library to Python. If there are any C to Python tools that work well that would be helpful for me to look into as well.

---

My advice would be to wrap it.

Reasons for that:

• if you convert function by function, you'll introduce new bugs (we're just human) and this kind of stuff is pretty hard to test
• wrapping for python is done easily, using swig or even ctypes to load a dll on the fly, you'll find tons of tutorial
• if your lib gets updated, you have less impact in the long term.

However, you need to

• check that the license you purchase allows you to do that
• know that having same implementation on embedded and PC side, it won't help tracking bugs
• you might have a bit less portability than a full python implementation (anyway, not much of a point for you as your low layer needs to be rewritten per target)

---

Definitely wrap it. It might be as easy are running ctypesgen.py and then using it. Check this blog article about using ctypesgen to create a wrapper for libreadline http://wavetossed.blogspot.com/2011/07/asynchronous-gnu-readline.html in order to get access to the full API.