Builtin functions
-----------------

XXX Change to alphabetical order!

``CFUNCTYPE(restype, *argtypes)``

    Create a function prototype using the C calling convention.

``WINFUNCTYPE(restype, *argtypes)`` (Windows only)

    Create a function prototype using the __stdcall calling convention
    (on Windows), or using the C calling convention (on Windows CE).

``addressof(object)``

    Returns the address of a ctypes instance as an integer.

``alignment(type_or_object)``

    Returns the alignment requirements in bytes of a ctypes type or
    instance.

``sizeof(type_or_object)``

    Returns the size in bytes of a ctypes type or instance.  Same as
    the C sizeof() function.


``byref(object)``

    Returns a light-weight pointer to a ctypes instance.  The returned
    object can only be used as function call parameter.  Behaves the
    same as calling ``pointer(object)``, but is a lot faster.  Same as
    ``&object`` in C.

``cast(object, typ)``

    Somewhat similar to the cast operator in C.  Interpret and return
    ``object`` as if it was an instance of type ``typ``.  ``typ`` must
    be a pointer type.

    XXX more needed.

``POINTER(cls)``

    This factory function creates and returns a new ctypes type.
    Pointer types are cached, so calling this function is cheap.

    To create a ``NULL`` pointer instance, use this recipe::

        null_ptr = POINTER(c_int)()

``pointer(object)``

    This function creates a new pointer instance, pointing to the
    supplied argument.  The return pointer is of type
    ``POINTER(type(object))``.  If you have a ctypes instance, and you
    want to pass the address of it to a function call, you should use
    ``byref(object)`` which is much faster.
    

``string_at(addr[, size])``

    This function does the same as the Python ``PyString_FromString`` /
    ``PyString_FromStringAndSize`` C api functions.

``wstring_at(addr[, size])``

    This function does the same as the Python ``PyUnicode_FromWideString``
    C api function.  If ``size`` is not specified, ``wcslen`` is used
    to determine the string length.

``create_string_buffer(init, size=None)``

    Convenience function to create a mutable character buffer.


``create_unicode_buffer(init, size=None)``

    Convenience function to create a mutable unicode buffer.


``memmove(dst, src, count)``

    Same as the standard C ``memmove`` library function: copies
    ``count`` bytes from ``src`` to ``dst``.  ``dst`` and ``src`` must
    be integers or anything that can be converted into a pointer.

``memset(dst, c, count)``

    Same as the standard C ``memset`` function.  Fills the memory block
    at address ``dst`` with ``count`` bytes of value ``c``.


``set_conversion_mode(encoding, errors)``

    This function sets the encoding/decoding rules when ctypes has to
    convert between unicode and byte strings.  It returns the previous
    encoding, as well as a tuple of any errors.

``DllCanUnloadNow()``, ``DllGetClassObject(rclsid, riid, ppv)`` (Windows only)

    Functions used in COM servers.

``WinError(code=None, descr=None)``

    XXX This is probably the worst named thing in ctypes!

    This function creates a WindowsError instance.  If ``code`` is not
    specified, GetLastError() is called to determine the error code.
    If ``descr`` is not specified, ``FormatError`` is called to get a
    textual description of the error.

``FormatError([code])`` (Windows only)

    Returns a textual description of the error code, or the last error
    code set by Windows.

``GetLastError()`` (Windows only)

    Returns the last error code set by Windows.

Deprecated functions
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

``c_buffer(init, size=None)``

    Deprecated.  Use ``create_string_buffer()`` instead.

``ARRAY(cls, len)``

    Deprecated.  Use ``cls * len`` instead.

``SetPointerType(pointer_class, cls)``

    Deprecated.