Sessions at PyCon US 2012 matching your filters

Cross-compiling is not a use case directly supported by the Python build and extension system. This talk will discuss the process of building python for your embedded platform, and the basics of getting C extensions compiled and running. It will focus on Linux so that the build host and the build target are the same.

Outline of talk

Ground Rules:
This talk is on cross-compiling. Porting Python to your favourite OS is a whole other (much longer) talk
Examples Focus on embedded Linux so that build host and target are the same OS. Different host and target OS is way harder
What makes cross-compiling Python challenging?

Why can't I just use OpenEmbedded?

may not support most recent Python versions
may not have a build recipe for a required extension
won't support your custom extensions
you must use another platform
Building Python (a short overview)

build, patch, cross-build
build standard lib extensions
Building Extensions

satisfying C dependencies
modifying setup.py
building for your platform
packaging for distribution
Other Things to Look Out for:

package dependencies
virtualenv & easy_install / pip
Challenges you may encounter with platforms other than Linux
Demo:

Python 3.3 on hardware TBD
Invitation to discuss ways to make Python more accessible to embedded developers

The continual decrease in the cost of computer hardware is allowing more embedded systems to be built with Linux and Python, instead of the traditional approach of a real-time operating system and C. This talk reviews the differences between those approaches and describes problems, solutions, and tools that can be used when building embedded systems with Python.

• Intro - goal of talk (2 minutes)
• Debian vs Fedora vs source distributions vs building your own (5 minutes)
• Different from the Desktop (10 minutes)
• user interfaces: toolkits vs. browsers
• setting the time
• network
• storage and backups
• upgrades: images vs packages vs deployment
• Portability, or ifdefs are Harmful in Python too (5 minutes)
• Not Python: C extensions, Swig, and import subprocess (5 minutes)
• Summary (2 minutes)