Linking languages

Question

I asked a question earlier about which language to use for an AI prototype. The consensus seemed to be that if I want it to be fast, I need to use a language like Java or C+

Answer 1

Boost.Python provides an easy way to turn C++ code into Python modules. It's rather mature and works well in my experience.

For example, the inevitable Hello World...

char const* greet()
{
  return "hello, world";
}

can be exposed to Python by writing a Boost.Python wrapper:

#include 

BOOST_PYTHON_MODULE(hello_ext)
{
  using namespace boost::python;
  def("greet", greet);
}

That's it. We're done. We can now build this as a shared library. The resulting DLL is now visible to Python. Here's a sample Python session:

>>> import hello_ext
>>> print hello.greet()
hello, world

(example taken from boost.org)