[IPython-user] embedding in C program

[Amir]

Amir <amirnntp <at> gmail.com> writes:

> 
> Hello.
> 
> I have embedded the Python interpreter in a C program. I would like to also
> embed IPython to take advantage of it's many features.
> 
> 1. I have the following basic program working, which starts up an IPython shell
> from within a C program.
> 
> #include "Python.h"
> 
> main(int argc, char **argv)
> {
>   Py_Initialize();
> 
>   PySys_SetArgv(argc, argv);
>   PyRun_SimpleString("from IPython.Shell import IPShellEmbed\n");
>   PyRun_SimpleString("ipshell = IPShellEmbed()\n");
>   PyRun_SimpleString("ipshell()\n");
> 
>   Py_Finalize();
> }
> 
> 2. Now, I would like to run commands through the IPython shell using the Python
> C api with Py_CompileString and PyEval_EvalCode and read the result using
> commands like PyArray_Check for a returned numpy array.
> 
> After instantiating an ipshell, is there a way to start it and pass commands to
> it using the C api and read from the __main__ dict? Running ipshell() will just
> start the interpreter and I wont be able to further call it from C.
> 
> Thanks,
> Amir.
> 

I'd like to add if anyone happens to be interested that this is part of a
Mathematica linked module that allows starting a python shell and calling python
functions transparently from Mathematica. I would like to interact with an
ipython shell rather than a python shell.

So far, what I have working is automatic recognition of numpy array types and
matplotlib plotting functions as well as the built-in Python types (lists,
tuples, booleans, etc). These are trivial extensions to the existing Pythonika
package:

http://dkbza.org/pythonika.html

In case you use Mathematica, this is handy because, among other things: 

- you have the mathematica notebook interface to record results and plots,
- you can call scipy functions where no counterpart exists in Mathematica (like
some signal processing functions),
- call R or cvxopt, 
- call Sage (haven't done this yet).