IronPython 2.6 Final Released

By Michael Foord -
IronPython 2.6 is finally out! IronPython 2.6 is a new version of IronPython targeting compatibility with Python 2.6. As well as the new language and library features that come with Python 2.6, IronPython 2.6 has new features for improved performance, general Python compatibility and better .NET integration. It's a great release; congratulations and thanks to the IronPython team.
 IronPython 2.6 final is identical to release candidate 3. Features new to IronPython in version 2.6 include:
  • The __clrtype__ metaclass for data binding and .NET attribute support
  • Implementation of the ctypes module
  • Support for Python stack frames and sys.settrace, which means the pdb debugger works (and better debugging from the .NET side)
  • Better performance through adaptive compilation
  • Faster startup
There are several changes to the samples in IronPython 2.6. These include two new samples:
CommentChecker
Not only will this sample show you how to utilize Word's spell checking functionality from IronPython; it'll also make your own Python code better! You see, this sample processes Python files looking for code comments that contain misspellings. Once these mistakes have been identified Word is utilized again to present you with the correct spellings. All of this is tied together with an elegant, user-friendly interface constructed from .NET's Windows Presentation Framework.
ClrType
The ClrType sample shows how to define a class in IronPython with required CLR members. Normally, a class definition in Python does not map directly to a unique CLR type. This is because the semantics of classes are different between Python and the CLR. For example, in Python it is possible to change the base types just by assigning to the bases attribute on the type object. However, the same is not possible with CLR classes. Hence, IronPython implements Python classes without mapping them directly to CLR types. Using the ClrType sample you’ll be able to define CLR fields, properties, class-level attributes, and declare strongly-typed methods.
Pyc, the IronPython compiler, is no longer available as a sample as "it was incorporated directly into IronPython releases as a tool".

The full IronPython 2.6 release notes:
We’re proud to announce the release of IronPython 2.6 final. This is a major release with improvements across all areas of IronPython. Significant changes include: 
  • Updating the language and standard library to match CPython 2.6
  • Improved .NET integration
  • Updating to the latest version of the DLR
  • Adding previously missing CPython features and fixing bugs
  • Performance improvements in particular startup time improvements
Python 2.6 support includes a large number of new features which include support for the new bytes and byte array types (PEP 3112), decorators for classes (PEP 3129), advanced string formatting (PEP 3101) which will feel familiar to .NET users and integrates nicely with IFormattable, print as a function (PEP 3105), Abstract Base Classes (PEP 3119), support for binary literals, along with lots of other minor features and changes.

IronPython also continues to improve .NET integration in this release. We’ve added the __clrtype__ method to types which enables deep integration via meta-classes with the .NET type system. There are also a number of smaller changes such as supporting IDisposable in for loops matching the behavior of other .NET languages. This release also includes the latest version of the DLR and fixes a number of issues related to cross-language dynamic interop. Not to be left out there’s improvements in Silverlight integration by supporting Python code in HTML script tags.

We’ve also continued to improve Python compatibility by adding missing features and fixing bugs. In this release we’ve added support for the ctypes module which provides interop with native code in a compatible way across Python implementations. We’ve also implemented sys.settrace to provide support for the pdb module and other Python debuggers. This release also changes how we support sys.getframe: a fully working version is now available by a command line option; when not enabled sys.getframe doesn’t exist at all. This release also fixes over 400 bugs removing a large number of smaller incompatibilities.

As always we’ve also continued to improve performance, and this release primarily focuses on improving startup time. The IronPython installer now pre-compiles (ngens) IronPython during installation on both 32-bit and 64-bit platforms. Modules are now interpreted initially and hot functions are compiled for faster import times. A number of other code paths that used to involve runtime code generation have been optimized to be contained within the pre-compiled IronPython binaries. We’ve also made a number of smaller changes which improve performance in other areas such as adding constant folding.

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