Err, you guys know that you can use any language you want by using the “hcommand” and “openport” combo, right?
Basically, in Houdini use the textport command “openport 554” where 554 is any number (do “help openport” in the Houdini textport for more info).
Then, you can use the command “hcommand 554 opls” to access Houdini from “outside”. So, in your Python script, do whatever the command is to call an external program (in Python) using “hcommand 554 xxx” and replace xxx with whatever Houdini command you want. That's it! That's why Python isn't embedded anymore, it's not needed to be embedded. You can program in Cshell, Python, VB, Fortan, Pascal, C++ or whatever the heck you want

Cheers,
PEter B