Could you please try to explain this RFE in a more detailed way?

From looking at the source there seems to be a specific API for creating plugins
for gEdit (defined in gedit-plugin.h I believe, and perhaps gedit-menus.h), I
think it would be beneficial to provide Python bindings for this API so that
plugins could be written entirely in Python.

I would like to see scripting as simple as it is in emacs.  With 
emacs, you can write a function in your .emacs and call it with
'alt-x function-name'.

Perhaps the gedit plugin api is that simple to use.  I wouldn't
know, because I didn't find much good documentation on the
subject.  If it requires programming in c, it probably isn't 
going to be the easiest thing to use.  I would be comfortable
with scheme/lisp or perl, but not c.

Note that given recent discussions on desktop-devel it looks like Python is
going to make it into GNOME 2.10 which would make this feature much more appealing.

I'm swamped for the next two months but I might try my hand at this after that
if nobody else takes up the cause.

Patch coming in the next hours

Created attachment 52024 [details] [review]
gedit-python.diff

First patch for python support in new_mdi

Created attachment 52025 [details] [review]
gedit-python.diff

Cleanup unwanted modification

Created attachment 52026 [details]
gedit-python.tar.gz

The added files

Is the patch for CVS HEAD?  I'm getting some failures when trying to apply.

(Thanks much for doing this work btw)

No it is against the new_mdi branch.

http://live.gnome.org/Gedit_2fNewMdi for more info.

And there is some cruft in the tarball too, please remove the m4/intltool.m4 and
gedit/pygedit/gedit.c files

Created attachment 52034 [details] [review]
gedit-python.diff

Fixes list return types, and the get_search_text method.
Use boxed types for GeditEncoding

Created attachment 52035 [details]
gedit-python.tar.gz

Updated and cleaned tarball

Created attachment 52049 [details]
console.gedit-plugin

The plugin file for console extension

Created attachment 52050 [details]
console.py

The actual python extension, put the two above files in ~/.gnome2/gedit/plugins
and watch the magic happen

Created attachment 52051 [details] [review]
gedit-python.diff

Updated with more goodness inside.
Update configure check for g-p-e instead of gnome-python (gtksourceview is
needed)
Sparkle some ifdefs to not compile in python support when disabled
Update boxed type to use release-func/copy-func

Created attachment 52052 [details]
gedit-python.tar.gz

Updated, see above

Created attachment 52058 [details] [review]
gedit-python.diff

Cleanup C-style
Pass the python module path to the loader

I'd prefer to see the pygedit files in another directory.
I think we should create a "bindings" sub-directory in the root directory
and then put the pygedit file in the "bindings/python" directory.

Rapheal: if you think your patch is ready for being committed, I will make a
detailed review as soon as you will attach the patch with the required changes.

So it would look like 
gedit/
 bindings/
  python/
   gedit.defs & co
 gedit/
  gedit-python-*.[ch]

Is that right ?

I'll do that tomorrow i suppose we can confirm this on IRC

If with gedit-python-*.[ch] you mean the python loader, it is right.

Created attachment 52174 [details] [review]
gedit-python.diff

Updated patch, with the new directory structure, nothing else changed

Created attachment 52175 [details]
gedit-python.tar.gz

The new tarball with new structure

Created attachment 52682 [details] [review]
gedit-python.diff

Final version of the patch, as included in CVS.

2.13.0 is out with all its python goodness. Go wild writing plugins!