IronRuby 1.0 (soon), Inside IronRuby and Professional IronRuby

By Michael Foord -
IronPython 1.0, a complete implementation of Python for the .NET framework, was released in September 2006. The first IronPython 2.0 release (Alpha 1) came in April 2007. IronPython 2.0 was built on the new Dynamic Language Runtime (DLR) which was a framework for implementing dynamic languages in general, which had been abstracted out of the IronPython 1.0 release.

Along with the new IronPython 2.0 project IronRuby was announced. IronRuby was an implementation of Ruby for .NET, led by John Lam who had previously been involved in the RubyCLR project. It has been a long road for IronRuby, with the latest release version 0.5.
Following their tradition of conference driven releases (panic-driven-development?) IronRuby 1.0 will be released at the coming OSCON 2009 conference:
IronRuby is 1.0! Come and see how IronRuby is used in .NET programs, how well it performs, and how conformant it is. IronRuby is an Open Source implementation of the Ruby programming language, built on top of Microsoft’s Open Source Dynamic Language Runtime. OSCON has an important place in the history of IronRuby, and it is only appropriate that we launch IronRuby 1.0 at OSCON 2009.
Jimmy Schementi is a member of the Microsoft dynamic languages team. In this 43 minutes channel 9 video he discusses the IronRuby project:
Jimmy Schementi is a Program Manager (and developer) on the IronRuby team. IronRuby is an Open Source implementation of the Ruby programming language for .NET, heavily relying on Microsoft's Dynamic Language Runtime. IronRuby is Ruby, but implemented on top of the DLR (which of course provides the capability for dynamic languages to interact with the BCL and CLR).

You've learned about the details of the DLR here on 9, which provides dynamic runtime support for .NET. IronRuby targets compatibility with the 1.8.x branch of Ruby modulo continuations. IronRuby is an implementation of Ruby version 1.8.6.

Here, Jimmy explains the thinking behind the IronRuby project. Why are we doing this, anyway? When/Why would Ruby developers use IronRuby? What's the current status of the project? What's the future hold for IronRuby? Tune in and learn about the past, present and future of IronRuby.
Early reviews of IronRuby in Action (for Manning Publications by Ivan Porto Carrero) are good, but it isn't the only IronRuby book in progress. Hot on the heels of Pro IronPython being released is Professional IronRuby, by Wrox and due out any day.
Professional IronRuby provides a complete guided tour through IronRuby, demonstrating why Ruby is important, what IronRuby can add to your .NET development arsenal, and how you can take advantage of Ruby while utilizing existing infrastructures. Building on your existing .NET knowledge, the authors will walk you through Ruby’s syntax and structure and the ways you can use IronRuby for .NET projects. Learn how to apply IronRuby to ASP.NET and Silverlight and decide where to develop your components, with straight-forward guidance on when and why to use IronRuby instead of C#, and vice versa.
Meanwhile Ivan continues to work IronRuby in Action (the companion book to IronPython in Action). He has just posted a sample ASP.NET MVC example using IronRuby to his blog that will be one of the examples in the book.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Extending Abobe Flash Player and AIR with Python and Ruby

By Michael Foord -
An intriguing blog entry about an Adobe experimental project. It is a C/C++ cross- compiler for the flash player and AIR. This means that you can (will be able to?) cross-compile the Python / Ruby/ lots of other language runtimes and then run them in Flash. The blog entry contrasts this approach to the DLR which requires the re-implementation of dynamic languages - hence IronPython and IronRuby. The project is already beyond proof-of concept, they even have Quake III cross-compiled and running in Flash. Extending Adobe Flash Player and AIR with C/C++ Cross-Compiler Quake 3 has already been ported to managed code , but this is even more impressive. Whether the Python interpreter can be cross-compiled to run on top of another runtime (with completely different basic types), without changing the language semantics at all, has yet to be proved - but it is a very interesting project. (It also means that Python/Ruby will possibly be enabled only by additional optional downloads - but don'
Read more

IronPython Tools for Visual Studio CTP3

By Michael Foord -
At PyCon this year Dino Veihland announced IronPython Tools for Visual Studio, an extension to Visual Studio 2010 for working with IronPython. It features Python syntax highlighting, awesome auto-complete (intellisense) and a host of other features for working with IronPython code in Visual Studio. It can be used with the free Visual Studio shell and doesn't require you to own a full copy of Visual Studio. The third CTP (Community Technology Preview) has been made available for download. IronPython Tools for Visual Studio We are happy to announce a minor update to the IronPython Tools for Visual Studio.  IronPython Tools for Visual Studio (IPyTools) is a set of extensions available for Visual Studio 2010 which supports development of IronPython applications.  This release is our 3rd Community Technical Preview (CTP) and builds upon the previous two releases.  The release is a minor update which includes bug fixes and a number of small features.  You can download the latest rel
Read more

Further Adventures of the Debugger

By Michael Foord -
Harry Pierson (Microsoft IronPython PM) has been experimenting with writing an IronPython debugger ( ipydbg ) on top of the .NET MDbg APIs. When we last left him , he had implemented Just My Code (JMC) support allowing you to step into IronPython code. Since then he has made a lot of progress including a colourful REPL (interactive console) and solving some difficult problems around getting to real values behind boxed IronPython variables (needed for showing local variables). He has blogged extensively on what he has been up to (more recent posts last): Showing Source Code Colorful Console IronPython ConsoleColorMgr (the colorful console code pulled out into a separate IronPython module) A Little Hack...err...Cleanup Getting Local Variables Displaying Values Command Routing Getting Arguments REPL Console A lot of functionality is now present. In the command routing entry Harry outlines the seven commands supported by the debugger so far: Continue, Quit, Show Stack Trace, Show Locals,
Read more