A Good Mix 33: Embedding Python and Ruby, Profiling IronPython, News on JScript, ctypes and DeviantArt

By Michael Foord -
More IronPython and DLR related projects, articles and news from around the web.
A  nice example of embedding both IronPython and IronRuby in a single C# project. As an added bonus the project is a Silverlight project so you can add both Python and Ruby scripting to applications that run in the browser.
IronPython 2.6 has useful new hooks for profiling and debugging IronPython code. Unfortunately most 'standard' .NET tools don't know how to use these, and if you attempt to profile IronPython code (particularly in an embedded environment) you have to work hard to get useful information about performance of your Python code. It's nice to see a new (and open source) tool that is designed to work with IronPython:
SlimTune is a free profiler and performance analysis/tuning tool for .NET based applications, including C#, VB.NET, IronPython, and more. It provides many powerful features, such as remote profiling, real time results, multiple plugin-based visualizations, and much more. The source code is available under the terms of the MIT License.

SlimTune is currently in the prototyping phase of development, but a preview release is available for testing and feedback is welcome. Both x86 and x64 targets are supported, but only sampling based profiling is available in the release.
When IronPython 2 and the Dynamic Language Runtime were announced one of the three Microsoft developed languages that ran on the DLR was JScript. Managed JScript was an implementation of ECMAScript (otherwise known as Javascript) and touted as a useful bridge for porting 'traditional-ajax' applications to run on Silverlight. Unfortunately as the DLR evolved JScript languished and there was no official word on its fate.

In this post on the DLR Codeplex forum Bill Chiles (DLR Program Manager) gives the bad news:
The DLR JScript was experimental for informing the design of the DLR (expression trees, interop, callsites, hosting, etc.).  The JS we released with asp futures and the Silverlight dynamic sdk became very old and unserviceable as the DLR continued evolving for release in CLR 4.0.  Unfortunately, there are no plans at this time to develop and release a DLR-hostable JScript.
A Japanese blog entry showing example code using the new implementation of ctypes in IronPython 2.6. ctypes is the Python FFI and in IronPython it is built on top of PInvoke, the .NET FFI. ctypes is used for calling into native code, like the Win32 API. Calls SHGetFileInfoW, which "Retrieves information about an object in the file system, such as a file, folder, directory, or drive root."
No idea what this has to do with the implementation of Python for .NET, but IronPython is the username of someone on the alternative community art site deviantART. Some pretty nice computer generated art, and who knows - maybe they were created from Python...

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