KIPI plugins and Python

[Himanshu Shekhar]

Hello

I went through KIPI plugins and had some suggestions.

Currently, KIPI Plugins are written in C++. It's great, fast, but a bit complex, compared to the alternative implementation in Python.

How about reimplementing it in Python? It's easy, scalable.

I had some thoughts to do the same:

* Reimplement the plugins in Python (Python3).

* As it is done currently, other applications using KIPI plugins can use the same API (in C++) to do the image upload/download task, where the C++ helper would spawn some Python subprocess to do the entire task.

* Use some sort of IPC, like File IO to get the response back to the calling program (if required). We can also consider "libpython" as a candidate. https://docs.python.org/3/extending/embedding.html 

Advantages:

* Ease of maintenance, as APIs tend to change fast, and so your callbacks within the program.

* The task is network bound, and not CPU intensive. So, Python is a good choice.

* Python "requests" module is very reliable to handle HTTP requests.

* Objectives can be achieved better with lesser lines of code.

* This could also pave way for creating plugins for other online services and integrating with KDE (like GNOME online accounts).

I tried to have a discussion on StackOverflow http://stackoverflow.com/questions/42611151/is-it-advisable-to-embed-python-in-a-c-application/42611603#42611603 and Reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/cpp/comments/5xnpvl/is_it_advisable_to_embed_python_in_a_c_application/ and got mixed reviews.

I would like to have your review on the same. 

If you agree, I can work on some simple prototype by the weekend for a demo.

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[Gilles Caulier-4]

Hi,

I'm very shared to add a new dependency to build plugins. As it's well explained in RedEdit, Python knowledgement will be required to maintain source with C++ and Qt knowledgement. I'm not favorable to increase the complexity. I work personalty to decrease the complexity since a while in this project, where the code become huge for a limited ressource.

Best

Giles Caulier

2017-03-14 9:23 GMT+01:00 Himanshu Shekhar <[hidden email]>:

Hello

I went through KIPI plugins and had some suggestions.

Currently, KIPI Plugins are written in C++. It's great, fast, but a bit complex, compared to the alternative implementation in Python.

How about reimplementing it in Python? It's easy, scalable.

I had some thoughts to do the same:

* Reimplement the plugins in Python (Python3).

* As it is done currently, other applications using KIPI plugins can use the same API (in C++) to do the image upload/download task, where the C++ helper would spawn some Python subprocess to do the entire task.

* Use some sort of IPC, like File IO to get the response back to the calling program (if required). We can also consider "libpython" as a candidate. https://docs.python.org/3/extending/embedding.html 

Advantages:

* Ease of maintenance, as APIs tend to change fast, and so your callbacks within the program.

* The task is network bound, and not CPU intensive. So, Python is a good choice.

* Python "requests" module is very reliable to handle HTTP requests.

* Objectives can be achieved better with lesser lines of code.

* This could also pave way for creating plugins for other online services and integrating with KDE (like GNOME online accounts).

I tried to have a discussion on StackOverflow http://stackoverflow.com/questions/42611151/is-it-advisable-to-embed-python-in-a-c-application/42611603#42611603 and Reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/cpp/comments/5xnpvl/is_it_advisable_to_embed_python_in_a_c_application/ and got mixed reviews.

I would like to have your review on the same. 

If you agree, I can work on some simple prototype by the weekend for a demo.

--