SWIG : An Easy to Use Tool for Integrating Scripting Languages with C and C++

I present SWIG (Simplified Wrapper and Interface Generator), a program development tool that automatically generates the bindings between C/C++ code and common scripting languages including Tcl, Python, Perl and Guile. SWIG supports most C/C++ datatypes including pointers, structures, and classes. Unlike many other approaches, SWIG uses ANSI C/C++ declarations and requires the user to make virtually no modifications to the underlying C code. In addition, SWIG automatically produces documentation in HTML, LaTeX, or ASCII format. SWIG has been primarily designed for scientists, engineers, and application developers who would like to use scripting languages with their C/C++ programs without worrying about the underlying implementation details of each language or using a complicated software development tool. This paper concentrates on SWIG's use with Tcl/Tk.