Handles and pointer to object

Question

I have a python Interpreter written in C++, the PyRun_String function from the Python API is said to return a handle, however in my code I have it assigned to pointer to a PyObject?

PyObject* presult = PyRun_String(code, parse_mode, dict, dict); 

Is this actually correct? Can you implicitly cast this handle to this object pointer?

Should it not be a HANDLE instead?

Answer 1

The word "handle" in API documentation usually does not refer specifically to the HANDLE type, but rather to any type intended to be opaque to the user.

PyRun_String in particular returns a PyObject*, there is no cast going on.