ctypes 0.9.9.6 released - Apr 20, 2006
=====================================

Overview

    ctypes is an advanced ffi (Foreign Function Interface) package for
    Python 2.3 and higher.

    ctypes allows to call functions exposed from dlls/shared libraries
    and has extensive facilities to create, access and manipulate
    simple and complicated C data types in Python - in other words:
    wrap libraries in pure Python.  It is even possible to implement C
    callback functions in pure Python.

    ctypes runs on Windows, Windows CE, MacOS X, Linux, Solaris,
    FreeBSD, OpenBSD. It may also run on other systems, provided that
    libffi supports this platform.


Changes in 0.9.9.6

    The most important change is that the old way to load libraries
    has been restored: cdll.LoadLibrary(path), and CDLL(path) work
    again.  For details see the changelog in CVS and in the source
    distribution.

    It was a mistake to change that in the 0.9.9.3 release - I
    apologize for any confusion and additional work this has caused or
    will cause.

    New module ctypes.util which contains a cross-platform
    find_library function.

    Sized integer types (c_int8, c_int16, and so on) have been added
    by integrating a patch from Joe Wreschnig.  Also c_size_t, which
    corresonds to the 'size_t' C type has been added.

    Two long standing bugs with pointers have been fixed.  Thanks to
    Axel Seibert for pushing me to the first, and thanks to Armin Rigo
    for finding the second one.

    The ctypes.decorator module has been removed completely, so the
    'cdecl' and 'stdcall' symbols are no longer available.
    The code generator has been removed completely.  It will probably
    be made available as a separate project later.

    The samples directory has been removed because it was completely
    out-of-date.

    The .zip and .tar.gz source distributions no longer contain
    different file sets.

    The development in CVS now takes place in the HEAD again, the
    'branch_1_0' branch is no longer used.


Changes in 0.9.9.3

    Windows

        The ctypes.com package is no longer included and supported.
        It is replaced by the comtypes package which will be released
        separately.

	ctypes has been ported to Windows CE by Luke Dunstan.

    Other platforms

        Hye-Shik Chang has written a new build system for libffi
        which should remove possible licensing issues.

    All platforms

        The library loading code has been rewritten by Andreas Degert,
        there are now sophisticated methods to find shared libraries.
	On OS X, this uses files from Bob Ippolito's macholib.
        See the manual for details.

        Finally I started to write the manual, it is available online:

            http://tinyurl.com/7bpg4

	New 'errcheck' protocol to check the return values of foreign
	functions, suggested by Mike Fletcher.

	Lots of bug fixes, especially for 64-bit platforms. Improved
	performance when creating ctypes instances.

	Subclasses of simple types (c_int, c_void_p, and so on) now
	behave as expected - they are not automatically converted into
	native Python types any longer.

	Support for explicit byte ordering in structures has been
	added (BigEndianStructure, LittleEndianStructure base
	classes).

	call byref() automatically, if needed, for POINTER types in
	argtypes.

	Lots of improvements to the code generator.

Download

    Downloads are available in the sourceforge files section
    <http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=71702>

    Binary windows installers, which contain compiled extension
    modules, are also available, be sure to download the correct one
    for the Python version you are using.


Homepage

    <http://starship.python.net/crew/theller/ctypes/>

Enjoy,

Thomas