libyahoo2 python bindings

2009-04-08T03:37:34Z

I have wanted Python bindings for libyahoo2 for a long time and finally sat down with Ned Batchedler's Pycon '09 slides, A Whirlwind Excursion through Python C Extensions, and wrote some basic ones available at:

http://bitbucket.org/graphaelli/ymsgrclient

Thanks Ned for the great presentation. He's right that it's just an introduction as things like calling python from C couldn't even be covered. I would recommend that aspiring module writers review Ned's presentation, move on to Extending and Embedding the Python Interpreter, and then bookmark the crap out of the Python/C API Reference Manual.

Back to the bindings - a simple bot that will parrot your words back to you looks like this:

import YmsgrClient

class ParrotBot(YmsgrClient.YmsgrClient):
    def got_im(self, who, msg, timestamp):
        self.send_im(who, msg)

b = ParrotBot(username, password)
b.login(YmsgrClient.STATUS_AVAILABLE)

There are a number of rough edges and simply bad ideas in the code but it is sufficient for writing a single account client. We've been using this for our bot at work for a few days without problems [or segfaults]. What we have had is an increase in bot functionality, as the barrier to writing few lines of Python and restarting the bot is much lower than writing a bunch of C and recompiling repeatedly until it works [or doesn't, giving up, and rolling it all back].

Some things I'd like to do immediately:

Convert the data structures and functions lifted directly from the libyahoo2 sample client to Python objects and expose them
Redo the login poll loop or at least allow callbacks to be scheduled somehow
Add Documentation
Throw better exceptions and use the logging module properly

Some things that someone should do eventually:

Add Webcam support and sample usage documentation
Test functionality on Windows

Contributions are welcome. Constructive criticism is greatly appreciated.

g.raphaelli's weblog

libyahoo2 python bindings