IronPython Moving Forward Again 61
immytay writes "
Jim Hugunin (Jython, Numeric, and
other projects) has issued the first release of IronPython
since joining Microsoft in August of last year. IronPython
runs on .NET and Mono and is supposedly faster than the C version of Python. This
new version is 0.7,
while 0.6
was released last summer and covered here.
According to the IronPython mailing
list, Jim has help from a Microsoft co-worker, and he plans to work toward IronPython 1.0."
Claim on 1.x times faster and alpha (Score:3, Interesting)
Java and .NET Scripting (Score:4, Interesting)
Lately, I've become interested in Groovy [codehaus.org], a JVM-based scripting language that combines concepts from Java (syntax, access to the class libraries) with concepts from Perl (dynamic typing, native syntax for collections and regular expressions). It would be interesting to see something similar for .NET.
you can't use python classes yet (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Java and .NET Scripting (Score:5, Interesting)
Groovy has been taking a lot [pyrasun.com] of heat [manageability.org] lately. Boo seems not to suffer from the management/community problems Groovy has. In fact, Boo is just plain more exciting; Groovy is just Ruby disguised in Java syntax, as far as I can tell, whereas Boo takes what's best about Ruby (heavy emphasis on closures/blocks), Python (indent-based scoping, first class functions), and C# (static typing, properties, annotations, "using", p/invoke, .NET native), and one-ups them with type inference. It really does provide the best of both static and dynamic typing; there is NO compromise here as far as I can tell.
As a bonus, the tool support is already very good. As with any self-respecting scripting language, it includes an interactive interpreter. (Boo scripts can be interpreted or compiled.) The Visual Studio .NET debugger already works with Boo, and if you write your Boo code in SharpDevelop (a free IDE for .NET platform) you can get code completion, syntax highlighting, code folding, etc. And since it's all statically typed, there is hope for IntelliJ-like refactoring tools, although I don't think any exist yet.
Bottom line, I think any Python, Ruby, or Groovy fan should take a long, hard look at Boo. You will find a whole lot to like.
Microsoft's claws (Score:-1, Interesting)
Here is what Edd Dumbill, a Mono developer had to say about it:
Does not sound good. Edd recommends for people looking for a Python experience on
Re:Java and .NET Scripting (Score:1, Interesting)
I must say that I'm thoroughly impressed!
I started off exploring some features of the CLI and Boo was able to handle all of it with grace. Delegates are a joy to use since Functions are objects. The Type and reflection systems all work as expected. The Type Inference system is really innovative. It saves you typing through inference, but maintains strong type functionality with compile time error checking. Much of the python nonsense (self, self self), and some useufl perl features added in like literal regular expressions and string interpolation.
My jaw nearly dropped when I realized you can debug and step through code using the builtin
I hope this project goes far. I'm only worried about the low amounts of news posts and mailing list traffic.