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Asked: 2026-05-24T07:12:23+00:00

Short Question Which would be easier to emulate (in Python) a complex (SAE J1939)

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Short Question
Which would be easier to emulate (in Python) a complex (SAE J1939) communication stack from an existing embedded C library:
1) Full port – meaning manually convert all of the C functions to python modules
2) Wrap the stack in a Python wrapper – meaning call the real c code in Python

Background Information
I have already written small portions of this stack in Python, however they are very non-trival to implement with 100% coverage. Because of this very reason, we have recently purchased an off the shelf SAE J1939 stack for our embedded platforms. To clarify, I know that portions touching the hardware layer will have to be re-created and mapped to the PC’s CAN drivers.

I am hoping to find someone here on SO that has or even looked into porting a 5k LOC C library to Python. If there are any C to Python tools that work well that would be helpful for me to look into as well.

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    My advice would be to wrap it.

    Reasons for that:

    • if you convert function by function, you’ll introduce new bugs (we’re just human) and this kind of stuff is pretty hard to test
    • wrapping for python is done easily, using swig or even ctypes to load a dll on the fly, you’ll find tons of tutorial
    • if your lib gets updated, you have less impact in the long term.

    However, you need to

    • check that the license you purchase allows you to do that
    • know that having same implementation on embedded and PC side, it won’t help tracking bugs
    • you might have a bit less portability than a full python implementation (anyway, not much of a point for you as your low layer needs to be rewritten per target)
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