Re: is STC a good supplementary library for C?

On 03/08/2024 16:25, Stefan Ram wrote:

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
    .

This looks like it wouldn't run much faster than in Python. So why not just use Python? It would be a lot simpler!