Passing C function pointers between two python modules

Question

I'm writing an application working with plugins. There are two types of plugins: Engine and Model. Engine objects have an update() method that call the Model.velocity() method.

For performance reasons these methods are allowed to be written in C. This means that sometimes they will be written in Python and sometimes written in C.

The problem is that this forces to do an expensive Python function call of Model.velocity() in Engine.update() (and also reacquiring the GIL). I thought about adding something like Model.get_velocity_c_func() to the API, that would allow Model implementations to return a pointer to the C version of their velocity() method if available, making possible for Engine to do a faster C function call.

What data type should I use to pass the function pointer ? And is this a good design at all, maybe there is an easier way ?

Answer 1

The CObject (PyCOBject) data type exists for this purpose. It holds a void*, but you can store any data you wish. You do have to be careful not to pass the wrong CObject to the wrong functions, as some other library's CObjects will look just like your own.

If you want more type security, you could easily roll your own PyType for this; all it has to do, after all, is contain a pointer of the right type.