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| IronPython | |
|---|---|
  | |
| Original authors | Jim Hugunin,Microsoft |
| Developers | Dino Viehland, .NET Foundation |
| Initial release | September 5, 2006; 19 years ago (2006-09-05)[1] |
| Stable release | 3.4.2 / December 20, 2024; 11 months ago (2024-12-20) |
| Preview release | 3.4.0-beta1 / April 30, 2022; 3 years ago (2022-04-30) |
| Repository | |
| Written in | C# |
| Operating system | Windows,Linux,macOS |
| Platform | .NET Framework,.NET,Mono |
| Type | Python programming language implementation |
| License | Apache License 2.0 |
| Website | ironpython |
IronPython is an implementation of thePython programming language targeting the.NET andMono frameworks. The project is currently maintained by a group ofvolunteers atGitHub. It is free and open-source software, and can be implemented with Python Tools for Visual Studio, which is a free and open-source extension for Microsoft'sVisual Studio IDE.[2][3]
IronPython is written entirely inC#, although some of its code is automatically generated by acode generator written in Python.
IronPython is implemented on top of theDynamic Language Runtime (DLR), a library running on top of theCommon Language Infrastructure that provides dynamic typing and dynamic method dispatch, among other things, for dynamic languages.[4] The DLR is part of the .NET Framework 4.0 and is also a part of Mono since version 2.4 from 2009.[5] The DLR can also be used as a library on older CLI implementations.
Jim Hugunin created the project and actively contributed to it up until Version 1.0 which was released on September 5, 2006.[6] IronPython 2.0 was released on December 10, 2008.[7] After version 1.0 it was maintained by a small team atMicrosoft until the 2.7 Beta 1 release. Microsoft abandoned IronPython (and its sister projectIronRuby) in late 2010, after which Hugunin left to work at Google.[8] The project is currently maintained by a group of volunteers atGitHub.
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There are some differences between the Python reference implementation CPython and IronPython.[23] Some projects built on top of IronPython are known not to work under CPython.[24] Conversely, CPython applications that depend on extensions to the language that are implemented in C are not compatible with IronPython,[25] unless they are implemented in a .NET interop. For example,NumPy was wrapped by Microsoft in 2011, allowing code and libraries dependent on it to be run directly from .NET Framework.[26]
IronPython is supported onSilverlight (which is deprecated by Microsoft and already has lost support in most web browsers[27]). It can be used as a scripting engine in the browser just like theJavaScript engine.[28] IronPython scripts are passed like simple client-side JavaScript scripts in<script>-tags. It is then also possible to modify embeddedXAML markup.
The technology behind this is called Gestalt.[citation needed]
// DLR initialization script.<scriptsrc="http://gestalt.ironpython.net/dlr-latest.js"type="text/javascript"></script>// Client-side script passed to IronPython and Silverlight.<scripttype="text/python">window.Alert("Hello from Python")</script>
The same works forIronRuby.
Until version 0.6, IronPython was released under the terms ofCommon Public License.[29] Following recruitment of the project lead in August 2004, IronPython was made available as part of Microsoft'sShared Source initiative. This license is notOSI-approved but the authors claim it meets the open-source definition.[30] With the 2.0 alpha release, the license was changed to theMicrosoft Public License,[31] which the OSI has approved. The latest versions are released under the terms of theApache License 2.0.
One of IronPython's key advantages is in its function as an extensibility layer to application frameworks written in a .NET language. It is relatively simple to integrate an IronPython interpreter into an existing .NET application framework. Once in place, downstream developers can use scripts written in IronPython that interact with .NET objects in the framework, thereby extending the functionality in the framework's interface, without having to change any of the framework's code base.[32]
IronPython makes extensive use ofreflection. When passed in a reference to a .NET object, it will automatically import the types and methods available to that object. This results in a highly intuitive experience when working with .NET objects from within an IronPython script.
The following IronPython script manipulates .NET Framework objects. This script can be supplied by a third-party client-side application developer and passed into the server-side framework through an interface. Note that neither the interface, nor the server-side code is modified to support the analytics required by the client application.
fromBookServiceimportBookDictionarybooksWrittenByBookerPrizeWinners=[book.TitleforbookinBookDictionary.GetAllBooks()if"Booker Prize"inbook.Author.MajorAwards]
In this case, assume that the .NET Framework implements a class,BookDictionary, in a module calledBookService, and publishes an interface into which IronPython scripts can be sent and executed.
This script, when sent to that interface, will iterate over the entire list of books maintained by the framework, and pick out those written by Booker Prize-winning authors.
What's interesting is that the responsibility for writing the actual analytics reside with the client-side developer. The demands on the server-side developer are minimal, essentially just providing access to the data maintained by the server. This design pattern greatly simplifies the deployment and maintenance of complex application frameworks.
The following script uses the .NET Framework to create a simple Hello World message.
importclrclr.AddReference("System.Windows.Forms")fromSystem.Windows.FormsimportMessageBoxMessageBox.Show("Hello World")
The performance characteristics of IronPython compared toCPython, the reference implementation of Python, depends on the exact benchmark used. IronPython performs worse than CPython on most benchmarks taken with thePyStone script but better on other benchmarks.[33]IronPython may perform better in Python programs that use threads or multiple cores, as it has aJIT compiler, and also because it doesn't have theGlobal Interpreter Lock.[34][35]
IronPython has no GIL and multi-threaded code can use multi core processors.
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