pycdio 0.16

Python OO interface to libcdio (CD Input and Control library)

pycdio is a Python interface to the CD Input and Control library
(libcdio). You can get the source at the same place as libcdio:
ftp://ftp.gnu.org:/pub/gnu/libcdio/pycdio-*

The pycdio (and libcdio) libraries encapsulate CD-ROM reading and
control. Python programs wishing to be oblivious of the OS- and
device-dependent properties of a CD-ROM can use this library.

libcdio is rather large and yet may still grow a bit. (UDF support in
libcdio may be on the horizon.)

What is in pycdio is incomplete; over time it may grow to completion
depending on various factors: e.g. interest, whether others help
out.

Sections of libcdio that are currently missing are the (SCSI) MMC
commands, and the cdparanoia library. Of the audio controls, I put in
those things that didn't require any thought. The ISO 9660 library is
pretty complete, except file "stat" information which is at present is
pretty minimal.

That said, what's in there is very usable (It contains probably more
access capabilities than what most media players that don't use
libcdio have.)

The encapsulation by SWIG is done in two parts. The lower-level python
interface is called pycdio and is generated by SWIG.

The more object-oriented module is cdio; it is a Python class that
uses pycdio. Although pycdio is perfectly usable on its own, it is
expected that cdio is what most people will use. As pycdio more
closely models the C interface, it is conceivable (if unlikely) that
diehard libcdio C users who are very familiar with that interface
could prefer that.

It is probably possible to change the SWIG in such a way to combine
these pieces. However there are the problems. First, I'm not that much
of a SWIG expert. Second it looks as though the resulting SWIG code
would be more complex. Third the separation makes translation very
straight forward to understand and maintain: first get what's in C
into Python as a one-to-one translation. Then we implement some nice
abstraction off of that. The abstraction can be modified without
having to redo the underlying translation. (But the reverse is
generally not true: usually changes to the C-to-python translation,
pycdio, do result in small, but obvious and straightforward changes to
the abstraction layer cdio.)

There is much to be done - you want to help out, please do so!

Standalone documentation is missing although many of the methods,
classes and functions have some document strings. See also the
programs in the example directory.