Cython: A Guide for Python Programmers

by Kurt Smith

Overview

Build software that combines Python's expressivity with the performance and control of C (and C++). It's possible with Cython, the compiler and hybrid programming language used by foundational packages such as NumPy, and prominent in projects including Pandas, h5py, and scikits-learn. In this practical guide, you'll learn how to use Cython to improve Python's performance—flup to 3000x—and to wrap C and C++ libraries in Python with ease.

Author Kurt Smith takes you through Cython's capabilities, with sample code and in-depth practice exercises. If you're just starting with Cython, or want to go deeper, you'll learn how this language is an essential part of any performance-oriented Python programmer's arsenal.

• Use Cython's static typing to speed up Python code
• Gain hands-on experience using Cython features to boost your numeric-heavy Python
• Create new types with Cython—and see how fast object-oriented programming in Python can be
• Effectively organize Cython code into separate modules and packages without sacrificing performance
• Use Cython to give Pythonic interfaces to C and C++ libraries
• Optimize code with Cython's runtime and compile-time profiling tools
• Use Cython's prange function to parallelize loops transparently with OpenMP

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781491901557
Publisher:	O'Reilly Media, Incorporated
Publication date:	02/05/2015
Pages:	251
Product dimensions:	7.00(w) x 9.10(h) x 2.60(d)

About the Author

Kurt Smith has been using Python in scientific computing ever since his college days, looking for any opportunity to incorporate it into his computational physics classes. He has contributed to the Cython project as part of the 2009 Google Summer of Code, implementing the initial version of typed memoryviews and native cython arrays. He uses Cython extensively in his consulting work at Enthought, training hundreds of scientists, engineers, and researchers in Python, NumPy, Cython, and parallel and high-performance computing.