IronPython URLs

Two weeks ago I reported on the latest news from SharpDevelop, the integration of unittest into SharpDevelop 4 for testing with IronPython. In my report I suggested that supporting unittest2 would be even better and Matt Ward has risen to the challenge. Matt's latest blog entry shows how to use unittest2 to run IronPython unit tests in the forthcoming SharpDevelop 4 IDE: SharpDevelop and unittest2 for Python SharpDevelop 4 has been updated to support running IronPython unit tests that use the unittest2 library. Make sure unittest2 is on the Python path before running the unit tests. Out of the box SharpDevelop will actually use the unittest library's test runner. This seems to work however if you actually need to use the unittest2 test runner then you can modify the following two files in the folder:  AddIns\AddIns\BackendBindings\PythonBinding\TestRunner . sdtest.py  sdtestrunner.py

Microsoft may have finally pulled out their collective thumbs and started to support IronPython in Visual Studio , but SharpDevelop has always led the way as far back as 2007 in supporting IronPython. SharpDevelop 4 is now under development and integrates with the unittest module to support unit testing with IronPython. This feature requires Python 2.6 to be installed, and IronPython debugging is not currently working with SharpDevelop 4, but it looks like it will a great release. Matt Ward gives us the details in his latest entry on the SharpDevelop community blog: Unit Testing with IronPython SharpDevelop 4 has been updated to support unit testing with IronPython. First you will need to install Python 2.6. SharpDevelop uses the standard Python unit test library (unittest.py) to run the unit tests. ... Once the project reference is added the unit tests can be run in the normal way by right clicking in the Unit Tests window and selecting Run tests. You can run all the tests i...

PyCharm is a new Python IDE from the JetBrains team, still available only as an "early preview" (beta planned this summer). As well as the "usual features" for Python IDEs (debugger, syntax highlighting, projects and code navigation, code completion, testing and version control integration, etc) it has some nice features like django support, Python refactoring and support for IronPython. Some of the details of the IronPython support are on the PyCharm blog: PyCharm build 96.115 is available IronPython support . It includes the possibility to generate Python stubs for .NET assemblies, but for performance reasons the generation isn’t performed on project opening and needs to be triggered manually (press Alt-Enter on an import statement). This will allow for code-completion (intellisense) to work for IronPython code in the PyCharm IDE. 

A guide to using IronPython with the SharpDevelop IDE translated into Spanish. SharpDevelop is a .NET IDE for Windows. Of all the major .NET IDEs it has the best support for IronPython. IronPython y SharpDevelop, en español Hola. En este post vamos a hablar un poco del hermano de Python (ó CPython) para la plataforma de desarrollo de Microsoft .NET, IronPython. Como he comentado a lo largo de la vida de este blog, alguien que se quiera dedicar a esta bendita profesión no puede estar ajeno a las combulsiones que se originan en este mundo. Si alguien no se había enterado (que creo que no) Microsoft ha lanzado una nueva versión de su archiconocido Visual Studio, versión 2010, junto con la plataforma de desarrollo Framework .NET 4.0. Según parece en esta versión se le empieza a dar una mayor importancia a lenguajes dinámicos, como IronPython. Y es por ello que me he decicido a investigar este territorio, tan inóspito para mí. Y es que aprender nunca pasa de moda. Decir que IronPython e...

Two more articles from Ibrahim Kivanc, the Turkish blogger who has written several articles on IronPython and Silverlight. Both of these articles are in English. IronPython 2.0 and Access to .NET Libraries IronPython 2.0 version now runs on DLR (Dynamic Language Runtime). DLR is a platform on .NET which is host Dynamicly typed languages on it. Now Dynamic Languages Communicate eachother and C#,VB, COM Objects, .NET Libraries. IronPython, with 2.0 version runs on DLR (Dynamic Language Runtime); it’s a platform like CLR architecture. It’s host for Dynamic Languages on .NET. With this architecture Dynamic Languages now faster then running on CLR and easily communicate with other .NET objects!   IronPython WPF Error In my opinion IronPython Studio is not stable enough for production use. It does have the advantage of being integrated in Visual Studio so some people can't resist trying it out. (You can read my write-up of IronPython Studio at: IronPython Tools and IDEs .) If y...

Yet another collection of IronPython and DLR related articles, projects and blog entries from the past few weeks. You had me at dynamic  An IronPython T-Shirt created by Harry Pierson . The text is C# + IPy = <3. You had me at "dynamic" . Testoob 1.15 Released Testoob Project Homepage  The latest release of the Testoob project (yet-another-Python-testing-framework) announces IronPython support. I haven't used Testoob, but it is nice to see more projects supporting IronPython: Testoob is an advanced testing framework and test runner for Python. As a test runner, it can run your unittest test suites and make your test-running easy with tons of useful options. As a framework, you can use it to make your test-writing easy with even more useful options. Version 1.15 (Oct. 2009) adds better Python 2.6, IronPython, and Jython support, as well as test coverage improvements, better color support, and some new options and bugfixes. BoxHeadRoom: IronPython and Mathematic...

Another collection of blog entries and articles related to IronPython and the Dynamic Language Runtime. Commerce Server 2009 Product Query via IronPython A blog entry from Charles Medcoff with a nice example of writing product queries for Commerce Server 2009 (the Microsoft e-commerce platform) with IronPython, including the necessary app.config magic to get it to work. SharpDevelop 3.1 Released   SharpDevelop is a .NET IDE for Windows with excellent support for IronPython in its latest version. This release is the final version of 3.1, which includes the new IronPython support (including forms designer and debugger): Seven months after the 3.0 release comes version 3.1 – the last feature release of the 3.x series. The following high-profile features were added to SharpDevelop: IronPython Windows Forms Designer Debugging Support for IronPython Applications Profiler for Managed Applications The Future: 3.1.x and 4.0 SharpDevelop 3.1 is a long-term stable release branch ...

Another collection of blog entries and articles related to IronPython and the Dynamic Language Runtime. IronPython 2.0.3 Must Fix Bugs With IronPython 2.6 Release Candidate 1 out of the door you might think that IronPython 2.0 was already defunct. Not true! David DiCato, an IronPython core developer, just posted to the IronPython mailing list asking what bugs people would like to see fixed in a 2.0.3 release: As we work towards our IronPython 2.0.3 bugfix release, Dino and I would like to get a feel for which bugs left unresolved in 2.0.2 are most important for us to fix in the next release. Please let us know ASAP if there’s an issue you’d like to see fixed in IronPython 2.0.3. Thanks! IronPython unter Eclipse 3.5 mit PyDev - Veni, vidi, vici  A blog entry (in German with just a hint of Latin) from Rainer Schuster about how he bent Eclipse 3.5 (with PyDev ) to his will for IronPython development. Google translate reveals his conclusion: From now on you is CodeCompletition ...

Several of the recent entries here have been about Silverlight and IDEs. We continue the theme in this entry, but looking at things from the Mono side of the fence. Moonlight 2.0 Goes Beta Moonlight 2.0 Beta Download Silverlight is a cross-platform, cross browser plugin by Microsoft that allows you to execute Python code in the browser with IronPython. It is a Rich Internet Application framework with a user interface model based on WPF (Windows Presentation Foundation) and full access to the browser DOM. Unfortunately cross-platform only means Windows and Mac OS X, leaving Linux users out in the cold. Fortunately the Mono team have stepped up to the plate. Their implementation is called Moonlight, and Moonlight 2.0 (the version that can run Python code) has recently reached beta. It is a Firefox plugin that runs on Linux and is capable of running most of my IronPython Silverlight examples . MonoDevelop 2.2 Beta 1: We go cross-platform Python support in MonoDevelop What's New in Mon...

A frequent question on the IronPython mailing list is "what IDE should I use with IronPython?". For many .NET developers the question is phrased slightly differently, "how do I use IronPython in Visual Studio?". Just as with Python this question is not easy to answer, depending to a large extent on what IDEs you have used before and personal taste. It is further complicated in IronPython with the need for features from a .NET IDE and from a Python IDE in order to fully use the language and programming environment. Popular options include IronPython Studio (either integrated with Visual Studio or standalone), Visual Studio itself, SharpDevelop , Eclipse with the PyDev extensions and the Wing IDE from Wingware. All of these tools have different levels of support for working with Python, the .NET framework, and IronPython specifically. This article looks at all of these IDEs and their features. It also covers other editors, plus common tools for Python development (...

Another selection of articles, audio recordings and blog entries on IronPython collected from around the web. How I Learned to Love Metaprogramming Slides and code from a talk by Kevin Hazzard on metaprogramming on the .NET framework using C# 4.0 and IronPython. The title of my presentation was "How I Learned to Love Metaprogramming" and it concerns Dynamic Language Runtime architecture, performance of dynamic typing and Python to C# integration. The slides and source code are linked below. I will be giving this talk again in September at the Charlottesville .NET User Group meeting. Both of the demos require C# 4.0 which is available in Visual Studio 2010. Demo One - shows how to do XML parsing using a fluent interface based on a DynamicObject derivation in C# 4.0 Demo Two - shows how the Level 0, 1 and 2 CallSite and ActionBinder caches perform. UPDATED: I added a demo on 30 June 2009 that shows how the DLR 0.9 compares by invoking dynamic code through the DLR hosting APIs,...

Tony Andrew Meyer did a comprehensive blog entry on choosing an IronPython editor for teaching . In it he reviewed 7 IDEs and Python editors for use with IronPython. He's posted an update to this where he tries out NetBeans plus the combination of Eclipse and PyDev. IronPython editor postscript I earlier tried various editors I was considering using to teach IronPython. One of the glaring omissions was Eclipse/PyDev, which has built-in support and is a very well-known IDE (particularly in the Java community). The main reason that I skipped Eclipse was that when I was searching for an IDE to use professionally about five years ago I tried Eclipse (for Python, C, and C++ development) and I really hated it – the IDE was very slow (especially to launch), it was very Java-centric, and just didn’t suit me at all. I’d briefly tried Eclipse before that as well, with similar results. Over the last few days, I decided that I was probably being unfair, and since this was a choice for my st...

More blog entries, articles and podcasts on IronPython and the Dynamic Language Runtime. Why SharpDevelop is a better IDE Discussing IDEs for IronPython is all the rage at the moment , and it is great that tool support is finally improving (and at an impressive pace). This post is by a developer called Mandar Vaze extolling the virtues of SharpDevelop for working with IronPython. In my first post about IronPython, I documented how installing IronPython Studio was painful (Needed Visual Studio shell, which in itself was confusing). When I started with IronPython I did not know about any other IDE, hence I went ahead with IronPython Studio. But later I came to know about SharpDevelop. IronRuby 0.6 Released IronRuby, the evil-twin of IronPython, has had a new release on the road to version 1.0. Jimmy Schementi announces and explains the release: Performance has been a major focus to this release, getting startup time quicker and optimizing built-in types. There has been more progress with...

As outlined in IronPython in Action Goes to College , Tony Andrew Meyer is teaching a programming course and using IronPython in Action as course material. Part of his preparation is deciding which IDE to use in the course - a choice that is not entirely straightforward for IronPython. Tony has done a long and thorough blog entry going through all the possibilities. The editors he looks at are: Notepad++, IronPython Studio, SharpDevelop 3.0, SharpDevelop 3.1b1, Wing IDE 101, Davy's IronPython Editor, Visual Studio under experimental hive and Komodo Edit. Choosing an IronPython editor for teaching The Northtec D520 “Programming” course is changing to IronPython (from Visual Basic) this year, so I have to figure out what editor/IDE the students should use. In some ways, Visual Studio would be ideal, since they need to get exposed to that during the course (and it’s an excellent IDE, with a really great form designer), but since there isn’t any real IronPython support in Visual Stu...

Another selection of IronPython snippets and articles from around the web. IronPython ActiveRecord in Action The Active Record pattern is a pattern for working with databases named by Martin Fowler and popularised by Rails: " The interface to such an object would include functions such as Insert, Update, and Delete, plus properties that correspond more-or-less directly to the columns in the underlying database table. " Creating classes where the shape of the class corresponds to the shape of a database table is particularly easy with dynamic languages. This Chinese blog entry demonstrates the pattern with IronPython hosted in C#. Generating Strong Repeatable Guids Blog entries by Steve Gilham have made frequent appearances here on IronPython-URLs, although I believe it has been a while since the last one. This entry isn't specifically about IronPython - but the example code is in IronPython. He shows a couple of example functions he uses in his build scripts to solve th...

A common question with IronPython is which IDE to use. Many .NET developers will immediately look for IronPython integration with Visual Studio but there are much better options. Up until now the front runner has been SharpDevelop with debugger, Windows Forms designer and even C# to IronPython translation. Other viable alternatives are Wing IDE and Netbeans . Another alternative has just arrived - and it is an unexpected one: Eclipse, through the PyDev extensions . The features it supports for IronPython are impressive. Testing on Pydev 1.4.7 & IronPython One of the major features in this release is the IronPython integration. Note that it requires IronPython 2.6 (earlier versions are not supported because of the lack of sys._getframe() ). In that integration, code-completion should be working for the .NET libraries and other dlls. For the .NET libraries, just make sure that the library you're using is listed in the forced builtins -- I believe all libraries should be there ...

Many .NET developers (all too many alas) are not willing (or not allowed) to use any language that isn't integrated into Visual Studio. As IronPython is a dynamically typed language it is much harder to build full support into Visual Studio - although there have been two attempts so far (the SDK for Visual Studio 2005 and IronPython Studio for Visual Studio 2008). In this blog entry Dave Fugate (IronPython tester and infrastructure guy for Microsoft) explains the current state of VS support for Python and as Visual Studio 2010 approaches he looks to the future... Python Support in Visual Studio I think I speak for everyone on the IronPython Team when I say we’d love to see IronPython support in Visual Studio by default without the need for any language service addition. The thing is these types of decisions are made at a much higher level than us and are heavily influenced by business needs. What I’m getting at here is if enough people provided feedback via the proper channels th...

Matt Ward is the maintainer of the IronPython support in SharpDevelop , a .NET IDE for Windows. His latest entry takes us through the IronPython debugger built into SharpDevelop. This was built using the techniques explored by Harry Pierson in writing his IronPython debugger . Crucial to debugging IronPython is "Just My Code" support (so you don't have to wade through the Dynamic Language Runtime internals when you want to step through Python code) - and this is the name of the feature in SharpDevelop. Debugging IronPython Code in SharpDevelop Ensure that the Just My Code feature is checked and that the Step over code without symbols is not checked. If the Step over code without symbols option is selected then stepping will not work properly and lines of code will be skipped over. There are two ways to debug your code. You can use the Python menu or modify the project options. We will look at both of these alternatives. First open your IronPython project into SharpDevelo...

In a recent entry I listed some of the editors and IDEs you can use with IronPython, but I missed one off the list: Davy's IronPython Editor . This is an IDE for IronPython written in IronPython and is the creation of Davy Mitchell . It comes in installable and mobile versions and the latest release is version 00.01.71. Davy's IronPython Editor 00.01.71 Released Nearly 2 months on since the last release and the project has changed a lot and whilst not a massive update, I seriously recommend this upgrade. Thanks to the IronPython mailing list for support, suggestions and inspiration. Like any other project out there, I am desperate for feedback :-) Also if you have any new ideas for the future, let me know. DIE has had about 400 downloads since launch. With blossoming interest in IronPython, (partly, I suspect, due to IronPython in Action ) hopefully it will hit the 1000 mark soon! So pop along and download. Here's the detail in what has changed in 00.01.70: Mobile Version ...

Any good Python IDE will work well as an IronPython IDE, but some specific integration helps. One very good option is SharpDevelop, which has recently gained some very sophisticated IronPython support . My favourite Python IDE is Wing , particularly for its autocomplete (intellisense) for Python and how easy it is to extend with new tools through its scripting API. Unfortunately Wing doesn't know about .NET types and so doesn't provide autocomplete when using them through IronPython. It does have a mechanism for teaching it about new libraries (generating interface files) which I modified to work with .NET libraries. HOWTO: Using Wing with IronPython This article has the PI (Python Interface) script for downloads with instructions on how to generate PI files for .NET assemblies / namespaces plus how to make them available for Wing. It also has an example extension script for Wing which launches the current file with the IronPython interpreter (with instructions on how to make ...