Sessions at PyCon US 2012 about Embedded Systems and Python in D5

Saturday 10th March 2012

• Cross-Compiling Python & C Extensions for Embedded Systems

  by Chris Lambacher

  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

  • C
  • Cross Compilation
  • Embedded Systems
  • Python

  At 4:15pm to 4:55pm, Saturday 10th March

  In D5, Santa Clara Convention Center

  Coverage video

• Designing Embedded Systems with Linux and Python

  by Mark Kohler

  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)
  • Embedded Systems
  • Linux
  • Python

  At 4:55pm to 5:30pm, Saturday 10th March

  In D5, Santa Clara Convention Center

  Coverage video