Programming question: Creating a shared library in Python for OSX

Factual Questions
1

I’m a Windows programmer, Visual Basic 6 mostly. I’ve written CGI programs, data processing programs, and also front-ends. I’ve also programmed a Windows DLL using PowerBasic (PB/DLL.)

I know nothing about Macs. Suppose I want to write the equivalent of a DLL for Mac OSX, in Python. Written in Python, but with the function available to any OSX programming language. I guess a “dylib” is what I want to make? What sort of tools do I need? Simple and cheap is what I want. All my library needs to do is some basic file I/O and string manipulation. The basic external function call would amount to something like result = Lookup(keyfield)
I’ve been Googling this stuff half the day and it seems there are 100 different ways to do it, all of which may or may not work.

2

[QUOTE=control-z]

I’ve been Googling this stuff half the day and it seems there are 100 different ways to do it, all of which may or may not work.
[/QUOTE]

So, I’m assuming that you have XCode and have taken a look at the various project templates related to creating libraries?

3

[QUOTE=UncleRojelio]
So, I’m assuming that you have XCode and have taken a look at the various project templates related to creating libraries?
[/QUOTE]

I actually hadn’t come across XCode, that might get me pointed in the right direction. Keep in mind I know nothing about Mac development.

Is XCode part of a free set of tools or is there some developer license involved?

4

[QUOTE=control-z]
I actually hadn’t come across XCode, that might get me pointed in the right direction. Keep in mind I know nothing about Mac development.

Is XCode part of a free set of tools or is there some developer license involved?
[/QUOTE]

No, it’s free. You can download it for free but I think it comes on the install DVD. XCode is the IDE to use for any and all Mac programming. A search for ‘xcode python library template’ yielded a few promising starting points.