IronPython in action.pdf

IronPython is a radical project for Microsoft. It is the first project to be released under
their Ms-PL (Microsoft Public License) open source license. It is also a radically different
language from the ones that Microsoft has traditionally promoted for the .NET
framework. IronPython is an implementation of the popular programming language
Python for .NET. Python is an open source, object-oriented, dynamically typed language
in use by organizations like Google, NASA and Pixar. Python is a multi-paradigm
language, and brings new possibilities to .NET programmers: not just the added flexibility
of dynamic typing, but programming styles such as functional programming and
metaprogramming. For Python programmers the powerful runtime, with its JIT compiler
and huge range of .NET libraries, also presents new opportunities.
The goal of IronPython in Action is not just to teach the mechanics of using IronPython,
but to demonstrate the power and effectiveness of object-oriented programming
in the Python language. To this end we cover best practices in API design, testing, and
the use of design patterns in structured application development. In part this is to dispel
the myth that dynamic languages are merely scripting languages; but mostly it is to
help you make the best of the language and the platform on which it runs.
The addition of Python to the range of languages available as first-class citizens in
.NET reflects the changes happening in the wider world of programming. No one says
it better than Anders Hejlsberg, the architect of C#, when asked by Computer World5
what advice he had for up-and-coming programmers: