NumPy and SciPy for IronPython and .NET

By Michael Foord -
The genius of IronPython is that it provides great integration with .NET libraries. The cost of this is that you no longer have access to Python extensions implemented in C unless the IronPython team, or a third party, has created an equivalent version in C# or wrapping an existing .NET library.

One very powerful and widely used set of Python extensions come in the form of NumPy and SciPy. This is a particular problem for those interested in IronPython as there is nothing of equivalent functionality and quality in the .NET world.

There is an existing way of accessing Python C extensions from IronPython in the form of Ironclad. Ironclad was specifically designed to work with NumPy, and it works astonishingly well, but it can never be as good as a native library.

Microsoft are obviously very interested in NumPy as they have just announced an interesting partnership with Enthought, a company who are active in the Scientific Python community. The partnership is specifically to bring a .NET implementation of NumPy to IronPython. The announcement was made at the SciPy 2010 conference.

Enthought, Inc., a leading Python and Scientific Computing technology provider announces plans to extend the SciPy and NumPy libraries to IronPython and the .Net Framework. Availability of these libraries on .Net provides advanced technical computing tools to the flexible, fully-featured Microsoft Windows software environment.
"These libraries are fundamental building blocks for technical computing applications, and we are very excited to see them become available to IronPython and the .Net community," said Shahrokh Mortazavi, Architect in Microsoft's High Performance Computing Group.
"It is exciting to witness the impact SciPy and NumPy have had on the technical computing community over the last decade. We are excited to unleash the power of these tools to a whole new group of users on the .Net platform," said Travis Oliphant, president of Enthought, addressing the attendees of the SciPy 2010 conference in Austin, TX. 
SciPy and NumPy are a suite of high-performance statistical and numerical tools for the Python programming language. They are used primarily for rapid data processing and analysis in scientific and quantitative applications.  Enthought principals, Eric Jones and Travis Oliphant, were the initial authors of SciPy, and Travis was the primary author of NumPy.   Both tools are actively maintained and enhanced by a large open-source community, and have been widely adopted by leading researchers, institutions, and commercial enterprises worldwide.  
The .Net Framework consists of a Common Language Runtime (CLR) abstraction layer over the operating system, pre-built class libraries for low-level programming tasks, and a range of specialized development frameworks and technologies that enable reusable custom applications. The collaborative effort announced today will enable existing Python applications utilizing NumPy and SciPy to run un-modified on IronPython and to take advantage of the high-performance Just-In-Time (JIT) compiler technology built into the .Net framework.  


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