Persevering on Boost-Python Tutorial (Boost 1_64_0, Python3.6 and msvc 14.0)

Question

I've been trying to get to level 0 of using Boost-Python (on Windows 10 with VS2015 and Python 3.6 installed) namely building the tutorial, for basically the last full 3 days,. I first tried to go through the official tutorial:- http://www.boost.org/doc/libs/1_64_0/libs/python/doc/html/tutorial/tutorial/hello.html but it won't work. Seems to me the example is setup such that it needs the 'Jamfile' in the 'tutorial' directory and the 'Jamroot' in parent directory.

After investigation/search, I started the answer in:- Can't run bjam to compile boost python tutorial Currently I am stuck with

fatal error C1083: Cannot open include file: 'boost/python/module.hpp': No such file or directory

I'll keep trying, but First question:-

1) Seems to me I should be able to build using bjam.exe with the following files in boost_1_64_0\libs\python\tutorial : hello.cpp, hello.py, some .lib (like boost_python3-vc140-mt-gd-1_64.lib or something), a suitable Jamfile, bjam.exe in the tutorial directory and a suitable Jamroot in the parent directory and user-config.jam in my HOMEPATH. Is that right ?

In fact, after much thinking and trying things out last week, I got a notch further, getting the following linker error :-

LINK : fatal error LNK1207: incompatible PDB format in 'C:\Program Files\boost\boost_1_64_0\libs\python\example\tutorial\hello_ext.pdb'; delete and rebuild call "C:\Users\DIAMON~1\AppData\Local\Temp\b2_msvc_14.0_vcvarsall_x86.cmd" nul link /NOLOGO /INCREMENTAL:NO /DLL /NOENTRY /DEBUG /MACHINE:X86 /MANIFEST /subsystem:console /out:"hello_ext.dll" /IMPLIB:"hello_ext.pdb" /LIBPATH:"C:\Users\DiamondExp\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python36-32\libs" @"hello_ext.dll.rsp"

if %ERRORLEVEL% NEQ 0 EXIT %ERRORLEVEL%

...failed msvc.link.dll hello_ext.dll hello_ext.pdb hello_ext.pdb...

and then I lost - I have to very shamefully admit - the partially working Jamfile/Jamroot when I stupidly deleted my whole boost directory to start from a "clean state". was really dumb. I couldn't really find anywhere to go from this fatal error LNK1207 anyway.

I'm very eager to get into this Boost-Python stuff, would make my life a lot easier. So I would be so grateful for any input from an experienced Boost-Python and/or Boost.Build user and maybe to get any amount of the following specific questions answered :

2) How should I modify my 'libs\python\example\Jamroot' (specifically after the "< location>") and 'libs\python\example\tutorial\Jamfile' ? Current state reproduced below. What would be a so-called "default location" for Boost.Python ?

3) Is it a good alternative to ditch bjam.exe and try and build with VisualStudio 2015 directly ? Like there: Building/including Boost.Python in VS2013

4) It seems from a few posts that something happened after Boost 1_55. Several people could not get it to work. Any known compatibilty problem between Boost-Python and msvc14.0 or Python 3.x ? For instance : Compile boost-python tutorial with VS-2015 CTP 5 and Python 3.5a on Windows 10 TP

5) I'm confused about the 32bit/64bit thing. I have 64-bit OS (Windows10) and Python 32bit installed. What should I match my 'address-model option' in the invokation of b2.exe to ? does it matter at all ?

6) is it worth using a .dll rather than a .lib here ?

Hope somebody makes it that far...

Jamfile : (nothing modified from default)

import python ;

project tutorial
  : requirements
    <location>.
    ;

python-extension hello_ext : hello.cpp ;

run-test hello : hello_ext hello.py ;

alias test : hello ;
explicit test ;

Jamroot :

import python ;

if ! [ python.configured ]
{
  ECHO "warning: no Python configured in user-config.jam" ;
  ECHO "warning: will use default configuration" ;
  using python ;
}

# Adjust the following if Boost.Python isn't installed in a default location
lib boost_python ;

project
  : requirements
    <include>C:\\Users\\DiamondExp\\Downloads\\boost_1_64_0\\boost_1_64_0\\boost\\python
    <library>boost_python
;

rule run-test ( test-name : sources + )
{
  import testing ;
  testing.make-test run-pyd : $(sources) : : $(test-name) ;
}

#build-project quickstart ;
build-project tutorial ;
if [ python.numpy ]
{
  build-project numpy ;
}

user-config.jam

# -------------------
# MSVC configuration.
# -------------------

# Configure specific msvc version (searched for in standard locations and PATH).
using msvc : 14.0 : "C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Microsoft Visual Studio 14.0\\VC\\bin\\cl.exe" ;


# ---------------------
# Python configuration.
# ---------------------

# Configure specific Python version.
# using python : 3.6 : /usr/bin/python3 : /usr/include/python3.1 : /usr/lib ;

using python 
    : 3.6                   # Version
    : C:\\Users\\DiamondExp\\AppData\\Local\\Programs\\Python\\Python36-32\\python.exe      # Python Path
    : C:\\Users\\DiamondExp\\AppData\\Local\\Programs\\Python\\Python36-32\\include         # include path
    : C:\\Users\\DiamondExp\\AppData\\Local\\Programs\\Python\\Python36-32\\libs            # lib path(s)
    : <define>BOOST_ALL_NO_LIB=1
    ;

Answer 1

If you are interested in C++ to Python, you should take a look at Pybind11. It is a header-only library based on Boost and that focus on binding C++ to Python.

You can download all resources here.

This is the option I chose when I realised that setting up the Boost python library was quite hazardous on Windows.