Could one control a software GUI with python? - python

I need to create a python script to control a ThorLabs device. The device can be controlled with the proprietary Kinesis software, coding with C#, or through the communication protocol commands (at least I think so, not experienced with this). I am working on the latter since I need this to work in python but I believe it's going to take me a while to learn how to do this.
So, I was wondering, would there be an easier way to prototype a quick solution say by letting python control the Kinesis software GUI? If not, would it be possible to call on a C# script through a python script? I'm not proficient with C# and our whole solution runs on python.
Some insight or guidance would be greatly appreciated.

PywinAuto seems like something that may work for you.

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Is it possible to bind a C executable with Python?

Recently, the company I work for has been modernizing their codebases to mostly Python. Last week, I was tasked with looking into converting a utility program we rely on to manage some USB devices. I was quick to discover this program is highly specialized and is likely impossible to covert to Python (nor do I want to attempt it if I'm being honest). I have access to the source code for this program.
This program runs on Linux and currently compiles to an executable, not a shared object (.so).
Is binding Python to this program something that can be reasonably done? If so, I've already looked into ctypes, cffi, cython, pybind11, and writing raw C bindings, but I am lost as to what the best approach would be. If not, there is no major loss--I'll just have to call the program via subprocess and parse its output.
Thank you for your time.

Run python in background

I've been searching a lot for this problem, but I didnt find any valuable answer.
I want to make a script (lets say it is a library) which runs some functions at reboot. Inside my library, there will be a function like
def randomfunction():
print("randomtext")
After loading this function, everytime a call for randomfunction() in any python run (I will .py as cgi scripts) will return me "randomtext".
Is that possible or I miss something?
It is working on python idle if I use exec, but I want this exec to be on system. That would be for a linux OS.
Don't you need some kind of Interprocess Communication for this?
Might be worth taking a look at these docs: Python IPC
Also,
this SO post might help you. I think it offers a solution to what you are looking for.

Simple interface for reinforcement learning

I have a reinforcement learning algorithm written in Python and I would like to build a very simple interface for it (Input and output form). As I am a dummy beginner in programming I would like to know the simplest way to do it (I have some html knowledge). Can you give me some practical direction?
p.s.I am working on Cloud9, if it matters.
Thank you very much!
You should use some GUI frameworks and there are many available out there (most of them are free):
Have a look in Python GUI Programming or Kivy website.
But I don't think Cloud9 have any of them installed or maybe I'm wrong (test and let me know!)
tkinter is definitely the easiest way to get started. You will have trouble using any GUI framework with a cloud IDE however because they typically wrap system frameworks only available to native applications.

Execution permissions in Python

I need to send code to remote clients to be executed in them but security is a concern for me right now. I don't want unsafe code to be executed there so I would like to control what a program is doing. I mean for example, know if is making connections, where is connecting to, if is reading local files, etc. Is this possible with Python?
EDIT: I'm thinking in something similar to Android permission system. I want to know what a code will do and if it does something different, stop it.
You could use a different Python runtime:
if you run your script using Jython; you can exploit Java's permission system
with Pypy's sandboxed version you can choose what is allowed to run in your controller script
There used to be a module in Python called bastian, but that was deprecated as it wasn't that secure. There's also I believe something called RPython, but I don't know too much about that.
I would in this case use Pyro and write the code on the target server. That way you know clients can only execute written and tested code.
edit - it's probably worth noting that Pyro also supports http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Privilege_separation - although I've not had to use it for that.
I think you are looking for a sandboxed python. There used to be an effort to implement this, but it has been abolished a couple of years ago.
Sandboxed python in the python wiki offers a nice overview of possible options for your usecase.
The most rigourous (but probably the slowest) way is to run Python on a bare OS in an emulator.
Depending on the OS you use, there are several ways of running programs with restrictions, but without the overhead of an emulator:
FreeBSD has a nice integrated solution in the form of jails.
These grew out of the chroot system call.
Linux-VServer aims to do more or less the same on Linux.

Writing a kernel mode profiler for processes in python

I would like seek some guidance in writing a "process profiler" which runs in kernel mode. I am asking for a kernel mode profiler is because I run loads of applications and I do not want my profiler to be swapped out.
When I said "process profiler" I mean to something that would monitor resource usage by the process. including usage of threads and their statistics.
And I wish to write this in python. Point me to some modules or helpful resource.
Please provide me guidance/suggestion for doing it.
Thanks,
Edit::: Would like to add that currently my interest isto write only for linux. however after i built it i will have to support windows.
It's going to be very difficult to do the process monitoring part in Python, since the python interpreter doesn't run in the kernel.
I suspect there are two easy approaches to this:
use the /proc filesystem if you have one (you don't mention your OS)
Use dtrace if you have dtrace (again, without the OS, who knows.)
Okay, following up after the edit.
First, there's no way you're going to be able to write code that runs in the kernel, in python, and is portable between Linux and Windows. Or at least if you were to, it would be a hack that would live in glory forever.
That said, though, if your purpose is to process Python, there are a lot of Python tools available to get information from the Python interpreter at run time.
If instead your desire is to get process information from other processes in general, you're going to need to examine the options available to you in the various OS APIs. Linux has a /proc filesystem; that's a useful start. I suspect Windows has similar APIs, but I don't know them.
If you have to write kernel code, you'll almost certainly need to write it in C or C++.
don't try and get python running in kernel space!
You would be much better using an existing tool and getting it to spit out XML that can be sucked into Python. I wouldn't want to port the Python interpreter to kernel-mode (it sounds grim writing it).
The /proc option does sound good.
some code code that reads proc information to determine memory usage and such. Should get you going:
http://www.pixelbeat.org/scripts/ps_mem.py reads memory information of processes using Python through /proc/smaps like charlie suggested.
Some of your comments on other answers suggest that you are a relatively inexperienced programmer. Therefore I would strongly suggest that you stay away from kernel programming, as it is very hard even for experienced programmers.
Why would you want to write something that
is a very complex system (just look at existing profiling infrastructures and how complex they are)
can not be done in python (I don't know any kernel that would allow execution of python in kernel mode)
already exists (oprofile on Linux)
have you looked at PSI? (http://www.psychofx.com/psi/)
"PSI is a Python module providing direct access to real-time system and process information. PSI is a Python C extension, providing the most efficient access to system information directly from system calls."
it might give you what you are looking for. .... or at least a starting point.
Edit 2014:
I'd recommend checking out psutil instead:
https://pypi.python.org/pypi/psutil
psutil is actively maintained and has some nifty process monitoring features. PSI seems to be somewhat dead (last release 2009).

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