Re: is STC a good supplementary library for C?

ram@zedat.fu-berlin.de (Stefan Ram) wrote or quoted:

Embracing these traits leads to more maintainable, efficient, and
understandable code. Instead of trying to force C to act like C++,
it's generally better to leverage C's strengths and use techniques
that are well-suited to the language's design and philosophy.

  If you absolutely need a library, you (Mark) should totally check
  out the Python library! It's been around forever, super reliable,
  and constantly getting better. Here's a quick example program:

#include <Python.h>

int main() {
    // Initialize the Python interpreter
    Py_Initialize();

    // Create a Python list
    PyObject* pyList = PyList_New(0);
    if (!pyList) {
        fprintf(stderr, "Failed to create Python list\n");
        Py_Finalize();
        return 1;
    }

    // Add some integers to the list
    for (int i = 0; i < 5; i++) {
        PyObject* pyInt = PyLong_FromLong(i);
        if (!pyInt) {
            fprintf(stderr, "Failed to create Python integer\n");
            Py_DECREF(pyList);
            Py_Finalize();
            return 1;
        }

        // PyList_Append increments the reference count of pyInt
        if (PyList_Append(pyList, pyInt) < 0) {
            fprintf(stderr, "Failed to append to list\n");
            Py_DECREF(pyInt);
            Py_DECREF(pyList);
            Py_Finalize();
            return 1;
        }

        // Decrease reference count of pyInt, as it's now stored in the list
        Py_DECREF(pyInt);
    }

    // Print the list size
    printf("List size: %zd\n", PyList_Size(pyList));

    // Read and print the integers from the list
    for (int i = 0; i < PyList_Size(pyList); i++) {
        PyObject* item = PyList_GetItem(pyList, i); // Borrowed reference
        if (PyLong_Check(item)) {
            long value = PyLong_AsLong(item);
            printf("List item %d: %ld\n", i, value);
        } else {
            fprintf(stderr, "List item %d is not an integer\n", i);
        }
    }

    // Clean up
    Py_DECREF(pyList);
    Py_Finalize();

    return 0;
}

  , output:

List size: 5
List item 0: 0
List item 1: 1
List item 2: 2
List item 3: 3
List item 4: 4

  .