Python Implementations Matrix

'Someone' (moreati?) over on the 'Misspelled nemesis club' blog has started a Python implementations matrix (spreadsheet). This tracks the different versions and implementations of Python (CPython, Jython, IronPython and PyPy) and what features and libraries they support:

• The Python Implementations Matrix

This is a great idea, but is far from being complete.

IronPython on Microsoft.com

IronPython features in several places on Microsoft's websites. We covered the Knowledge Tools page, here are a few more:

• IronPython Samples - Examples of how to integrate a new language with various aspects of Visual Stdio (from compiler tasks to syntax highlighting to deployment)
• Microsoft Robotics Centre - Three tutorials on using Microsoft Robotics with IronPython
• Sho: I've found various references to Sho as a "an interactive language for scientific computing based on IronPython". I can't find a website for it, but one of the pages it is mentioned on is the page of Sumit Basu
• Comparing & Managing Multiple Versions of Slide Presentations (pdf) - Research project on managing slide presentations, that used IronPython
• Common Language Runtime: IronPython and .NET Scripting Languages - A video presentation by Mahesh Prakriya (lead manager of the CLR team)
• 2006 Lang.NET Symposium: IronPython and Beyond - A presentation by Jim Hugunin
• Developing Agile but Rich Client Applications with Python - a webcast by Mahesh
  

IronPython in Action: Chapter 5 & 6 Available

Chapters 5 & 6 of "IronPython in Action" join the first four chapters in the Manning Early Access program:

• IronPython in Action: Early Access
  

Men of Iron Podcast

Craig Murphy has posted an interview with Michael Foord (uhm... me) on IronPython and the Dynamic Language Runtime and with Dave Verwer on Ruby and IronRuby:

• Men of Iron Podcast

The interviews were both done at Mix UK.

The IronPython 2 Hosting API

Shri Borde has just posted to the IronPython mailing list a link to a document on the IronPython 2 hosting APIs. It is from May, so things have changed a bit since then, but it will still be very useful for anyone embedding IronPython 2 (or any DLR based language) in an application:

• hosting-tour.doc
  

Inside IronRuby

Cory Foy has posted a blog entry examining a bit of how IronRuby weaves its magic. All of the entry is interesting, and a lot of it is relevant to IronPython as they share code through the DLR:

• Inside IronRuby

Resolver: The IronPython Spreadsheet

Jon Udell has posted a blog entry and screen cast on a new spreadsheet application written in IronPython:

• First Look at Resolver, an IronPython Spreadsheet

Entering formulae into a spreadsheetis a form of functional programming, and is overwhelmingly the most common form of 'end user programming' there is. Jon feels that Resolver has something new to offer in this area.

The clr Module

Two more blog entries from Haibo Luo, exploring the IronPython 'clr' module (which is the key to interacting with the .NET framework). Whilst aimed at .NET programmers exploring IronPython for the first time, the entry on 'AddReference' is particularly useful for understanding .NET assemblies and how IronPython works with them:

• import clr
• clr.AddReference
  

IronPython: Grab the .NET Type

A blog entry by Haibo Luo, on using IronPython to play with .NET types including nested classes, generics and what not:

• IronPython: Grab the .NET Type
  

IronPython/Mono Benchmarks

Seo has done some benchmarks of IronPython 1.1 on Mono, showing how performance has improved from 1.2.3 (February this year), through 1.2.5 (August) to current SVN head:

• IronPython/Mono Benchmarks
  

IronPython: My .NET Exploration Tool

IronPython is a great way to explore .NET assemblies; you can create and experiment with live objects using the interactive interpreter - as *CODER discovered. His blog entry shows using the 'System.Security.Cryptography' assembly:

• IronPython: My .NET Exploration Tool
  

A Collection of Links

A collection of links to people discovering IronPython:

• Working the Snake

Finding the 'greatest common divisor' and fibonaci using IronPython.

• Make Your Application Scriptable with IronPython

Making .NET applications scriptable with IronPython.

• Tfs via IronPython

Working with the 'Team Foundation Server' through the IronPython interactive interpreter.

• A minimal sqlplus clone in IronPython

A script for interactively working with Oracle. The text is in German, but the code looks straightforward.

And some news that is related to IronPython:

• IronPython Team has a New Boss
• OSI Calls for Revisions to Microsoft Permissive License

Oh, and I don't think I posted a link here to my set of articles / downloads / online examples for IronPython and Silverlight:

• Voidspace IronPython & Silverlight Pages

CLR Inside & Out: Article on the DLR

The latest issue of 'CLR Inside and Out' has an article on IronPython and the Dynamic Language Runtime:

• IronPython and the Dynamic Language Runtime

Microsoft Knowledge Tools

An interesting quote on the Microsoft Knowledge Tools page:

To make research progress, we build prototype tools and get them into the hands of these types of users. We build many of our prototype tools on top of IronPython, a version of Python for .NET.

Python is like a virus, once it infects one part of a company it spreads everywhere...

Managed DirectX via IronPython

Andy Sy has put up a three part tutorial on using managed DirectX with IronPython:

• Referencing the MDX 1.1 Assemblies
• Interactive Control of a Managed Direct3D Device
• Rendering Alpha Blended 2D Sprites

Introduction to IronPython and Silverlight

My PyCon UK talk, introducing IronPython on Silverlight, is now online.

This goes through creating a minimal IronPython application for Silverlight and explores the Silverlight APIs. The Web IDE has also been updated and now has several examples built-in. More details to follow, but for the moment:

• Silverlight Talk: Quick Links
  

IronPython in Action

The first four chapters of IronPython in Action, the 'forthcoming' book, are now available via the Manning Early Access Program. The first chapter is free to download.

• IronPython in Action

This means that you get access to the book as it is being written (and get the chance to point out our mistakes!).

The first five chapters (the fifth should be added in the next few days) are an introduction to .NET, a Python tutorial, and then a walk through an example structured Python application illustrating both the Python language and aspects of the .NET framework.

The rest of the book is going to be much more 'recipe style' and cover a wide range of aspects of .NET (ASP, databases, web services, working with Windows and so on), deeper into Python (testing, protocols, metaclasses and so on) and also embedding and extending IronPython.

Make Twitter Talk with IronPython

More code from Davy Mitchell. This time showing how to use the Twitter XML API from IronPython:

• Make Twitter Talk with IronPython
  

IronPython 2.0 Alpha 4 Released

IronPython 2.0 Alpha 4 has just been released:

• Release Notes

The most significant changes in this release include:
• Completion of the –X:Interpret mode and its incorporation into the eval and exec functions
• The addition of the -X:PreferComDispatch mode
• Improved performance for the itertools module and the importing of CLR-based modules
• A number of bug fixes
Like previous Alpha releases, quite a bit of refactoring work has been completed and this process is still ongoing. In particular, effort has been put into making .NET interoperability easier for language implementers on the DLR.

-X:PreferComDispatch enables direct support for IDispatch COM objects, and includes support for indexers and output parameters in IDispatch-based calls. This will improve IronPython’s integration with IDispatch-based COM APIs such as in Microsoft Office.

Some of the notable bug fixes included in this release are:
• _iter_ is now available for all iterable .NET objects with the exception of System.String (CPython’s string type does not support this)
• isinstance now works on interfaces
• fixed null reference exception when attempting to read a write-only (.NET) property
• fixed invalid IL generated for Python code similar to ‘System.IComparable.CompareTo(1,1)’,

Semantic Password Generator

JoeSox has written a 'Semantic Password Generator' in IronPython, that uses Wordnet.

• Semantic Password Generator on CodeProject
• Semantic Password Generator Homepage

Sources and documentation are available.

SharePoint, IronPython, and another lesson in the virtue of laziness

A blog entry from Jon Udell on using IronPython to work with documents accessed via a Sharepoint server:

• SharePoint, IronPython, and another lesson in the virtue of laziness
  

I’m doing an internal project that involves reading several different data sources from a SharePoint 2007 server, merging them, and posting the merged data back to the server. Being lazy, I wanted to use IronPython, write as little code as possible, and do everything dynamically.

Embedding IronPython in a Silverlight (C#) Application

I previously blogged about how to use the IronPython engine from inside a compiled C# Silverlight assembly. This worked fine when you used the resulting assembly from IronPython, but not when used standalone! This was due to a bug in the platform assumptions that the DLR makes, but with help from the IronPython mailing list a workaround has been found:

• Embedding IronPython in a Silverlight (C#) Application

It means a bit of extra boilerplate code, but hopefully before Silverlight 1.1 final this code will have moved into the DLR and all will be rosy again...

Oh, and by the way... IronRuby is now Live on RubyForge. John Lam has build instructions and news on the latest updates on his blog.

Minimise a Winforms Application to the System Tray

Davy Mitchell has posted an example of how to minimise a Windows Forms application to the system tray:

• Minimise a Winforms Application to the System Tray
  

Silverlight 1.0 Released, Plans for 1.1, and Microsoft / Novell Officially Collaborate on Silverlight for Linux

A flurry of 'official' news on Silverlight.

Silverlight 1.0 has just been released and Scott Guthrie has outlined the plans for Silverlight 1.1:

Now that Silverlight 1.0 is out the door, my team is cranking hard on our Silverlight 1.1 release.

Silverlight 1.1 will include a cross-platform version of the .NET Framework, and will enable a rich .NET development experience in the browser. It will support a WPF programming model for UI - including support for an extensible control model, layout management, data-binding, control skinning, and a rich set of built-in controls. It will also include a subset of the full .NET Framework base class library you use today, including support for collections, generics, IO, threading, globalization, networking (including sockets, web-services and REST support), HTML DOM, XML, local storage, and LINQ.

You'll be able to use any .NET language to develop a Silverlight application (VB, C#, JavaScript, Python, Ruby, Pascal, and more). It is going to really open up a lot of new development opportunities.

• Scott Guthrie on Silverlight 1.0 and 1.1

Silverlight currently supports Windows and Mac OS. The Mono team have been working hard on a 1.1 compatible release that supports Linux, called Moonlight.

Microsoft have now decided that this will be the 'official' way that Linux is supported and are collaborating with the Mono team on Moonlight:

• Miguel de Icaza: Microsoft/Novell Collaboration on Silverlight

The highlights of the collaboration are:

• Microsoft will give Novell access to the test suites for Silverlight to ensure that we have a compatible specification. The same test suite that Microsoft uses for Silverlight.
• Microsoft will give us access to the Silverlight specifications: details that might be necessary to implement 1.0, beyond what is currently published on the web; and specifications on the 1.1 version of Silverlight as it is updated.
• Microsoft will make the codecs for video and audio available to users of Moonlight from their web site. The codecs will be binary codecs, and they will only be licensed for use with Moonlight on a web browser (sorry, those are the rules for the Media codecs).
• Novell will implement Silverlight 1.0 and 1.1 and will distribute it for the major Linux distributions at the time of the shipment. We will offer some kind of one-click install for Linux users (no "Open a terminal and type su followed by your password..." as well as RPM and DEB packages for the major distros and operating systems.

Hopefully all the shared specifications might see full docs for the CoreCLR APIs (shipped with 1.1) arrive a bit sooner...

An important part of developing websites that use Silverlight is the desgn tool Expression Blend. There are free betas of this available, but it is a commercial product and is not cross-platform.

The Mono team are also developing a desgn product, called the Moonlight Designer.

Bug in IronPython Visual Studio Integration

Aaron Marten manfully owns up to a bug in the IronPython Visual Studio integration, and explains the issues:

Why can't I show the "Add New Items" dialog in a WPF flavored project?

IronPython and Silverlight Resources

Chris Bowen has compiled a list of resources for using IronPython with Silverlight:

IronPython and Silverlight Resources