[crossfire] Swig Libraries Proposal

[alex_sch at telus.net]

Recently in another thread, there was some discussion on making a new editor to
deal with some of the issues in both crossedit and the current java editor. I
suggested possibly using python/pygtk to do it. However I also believe using the
existing C code in common/ would be very helpful. To aid this type of
development, I propose that the server code tree should include the option of
building libraries for use with scripting languages by using Swig
(
     
     http://www.swig.org/
     
     ). As Swig can be used with many languages including python
and perl, it could also make it very easy to make small scripts to search
archtypes and maps and such, so it could be useful even if it doesn't lead to a
new editor. Also note, this is not at least at first, intended to replace the
python plugin for the server (though that might possibly be something to
consider for the futute)

I am very sure I should be able to set up the input files for Swig that define
how the bindings should operate, however I'm thinking I may need help for
integrating it into the build system. These pages look helpful:
  
     
     http://www.signal6.com/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?SwigFaqAutotoolsConfiguration
     
     
     http://www.swig.org/Doc1.3/Introduction.html#Introduction_build_system
     
     
however I have no experience with dealing with autoconf and makefiles and will
probably need some assistance on that.

Anybody have any suggestions on dealing with the makefiles, and comments on the
proposal in general?

   Thanks,
      Alex Schultz


P.S. Please keep discussion specifically on making a new editor in the other
thead and keep this thead to discussion on setting up Swig bindings for common/