id	summary	reporter	owner	description	type	status	priority	milestone	component	version	resolution	keywords	cc	blockedby	blocking	notify_on_close	platform	project
2818	Improve sample bundle code	Tristan Croll	Eric Pettersen	"The sample bundle found at https://www.rbvi.ucsf.edu/chimerax/docs/devel/writing_bundles.html is a bit daunting to the beginner - in particular, the sample C++ code using the low-level Python C API. That side of Python is ugly as sin and personally I always find it very hard to follow even after a lot of experience. I also think the Makefile is out of date. If you want to get more third-party developers on board, I'd suggest expanding on it somewhat - e.g. providing a few different examples of how C++ code can be bound, adding some verbose documentation to cmd.py, etc..

I've made a start at a suggested approach: splitting the actual code defining the C++ function to be wrapped into its own header, _sample.h, which is then #included in different _sample_xxx.cpp files demonstrating different wrapping approaches. At the moment I've just added a PyBind11 example, but it'd probably be a good idea to add an example using ctypes, and (maybe?) SWIG. Give people as many options as possible, so they can use whichever they're most comfortable with.

Can't do more for now - about to jump on a flight to Australia (for the Lorne conference)."	defect	closed	major		Documentation		fixed		Tom Goddard Conrad Huang				all	ChimeraX