03.current_impl.md

Current implementation

Pros

• Cython is a superset of Python
• Mature codebases for example usage and best practices
• Lower overhead to call C/C++ code
• NumPy integration
• Nice gradual path to migrate performance-intensive code from Python to C/C++

Cons

• Cython C++ integration has some corner cases and missing features
• Need to rewrite header declarations (pxd file)
• Errors can be cryptic (do they happen at the C/C++, Cython or Python level?)
• Many C/C++ build system combinations
• Vendored dependencies (no package mgmt)
• One wheel per OS and Python version

Further reading

• The current minhash implementation (header file)
• The pxd (descriptions) for Cython)
• The pyx (implementation in Cython) to make low level code more pythonic