IronPython at PyCon and the Python Language Summit

By Michael Foord -
PyCon 2009 - the international Python conference in Chicago - is rapidly approaching.

Harry Pierson (Microsoft IronPython Program Manager) has blogged about how IronPython features this year:
Harry also mentions the difficulties he's had in getting the Microsoft Gold Sponsorship for PyCon actually into the hands of the PSF. (Python Software Foundation - who as well as running the conference also own the copyright on the Python code and the trademarks etc).

As well as talks on tutorials covering IronPython, PyCon starts this year with a Python Language Summit. This is the first time this has been tried:

The Python Language Summit is an invitation-only event for developers of Python implementations and the standard library, to be held at PyCon 2009 in Chicago, on Thursday March 26 2009. The coordinator for this summit is Andrew Kuchling.
Attendees will not deliver formal presentations. Instead, the Summit will be a series of sessions focusing on specific issues. After a 5-10 minute presentation by a session leader, the attendees will concentrate on discussing issues and deciding upon actions to take.
Both Dino and I will be there, with a particular interest in how Python can better support alternative implementations. One of the sessions particularly addresses this issue:
What do the various VMs want/need from CPython to help with their implementations?
  • Marking CPython-specific tests in the test suite?
  • Getting an implementation agnostic test suite for the Python language?
  • Separating the language tests and the pure Python part of the standard library into a separate project? (Or publish them as a separate package.)
  • Transition plans for 3.0?
Session leader: Frank Wierzbicki of Jython.
The language summit isn't the only new addition to PyCon. There is (running concurrently - very topical) a VM summit for those developing Virtual Machines for dynamic languages. Ivan Kristic has details on his blog:
It is a free, full-day, invite-only event intended to bring together people doing cutting edge work on implementing virtual machines for dynamic programming languages. It’s not designed to be a dog-and-pony show but a hardcore, technical working session.

We’ll have representatives of the CPython, PyPy, GemStone MagLev, Rubinius, Mozilla TraceMonkey, Parrot, Sun Da Vinci Machine, Microsoft DLR, Jython and JRuby communities, with several more being approached.
Very exciting, hopefully see you at PyCon.

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