Jim Hugunin on IronPython in Action
Jim Hugunin is the creator of IronPython and we were very fortunate to get him to write the foreword to IronPython in Action. In the foreword he explains how he came to create IronPython, which is a fun story, and how he has come to appreciate the .NET framework as a versatile platform where multiple languages really can interoperate. He has posted the foreword on his blog (which he says keeps him on track for his quota of one post every six months), and you can read it in full at:
My favourite part of the foreword is:
After getting over my initial skepticism, I've grown to love the CLR and .NET as much as Python. While no platform is perfect, this is the closest that we've ever come to a universal runtime that can cleanly support a wide variety of different programming languages. Even more exciting to me is that the team is committed to the multi-language story and we've got great projects like the DLR, IronRuby and F# to keep extending the range of languages that can coexist on this platform. I've even grown to like C# as by far the most enjoyable and versatile statically typed programming language I've used.
As the architect for IronPython, I like to believe that it's such a simple and elegant combination of the Python language and the .NET platform that it needs no documentation. After all, who could possibly not know that they should use clr.Reference to pass an out parameter to a .NET method. Well, I guess that it's assumptions like that one that make me a poor choice for writing a book teaching people about IronPython. The best choice for writing a book like this would be a long-term user who's deeply engaged with the community and who has been trying to understand and explain the system to others for years.
Now, if only we could find such a person…