[IronPython] learning IronPython

[Lesley & Mitch Barnett]

Thanks Michael and Richard, excellent info!  Much appreciated, Mitch


-----Original Message-----
Hi Mitch,
 
I second Michael's recommendation about comp.lang.python and Mark Pilgrim's
'Dive Into Python'. Another good online book that you might want to look at
is 'How to Think Like a Computer Scientist: Learning with Python' [
http://www.ibiblio.org/obp/thinkCSpy/].
 
I learnt Truth Value Testing from comp.lang.python
[http://docs.python.org/lib/truth.html]
 
Ironpython is perfect if you prefer the python syntax and know .NET's Base
Class Library well. That is what got me started as I, just like you, had
been programming with C# when I learnt python.
 
The quickest way to learn is to start writing your C# code in python,
download the python manual from python.org and use it whenever you need to
translate your C# equivalent. Slowly as you will read more python code, you
will start thinking more in python directly and when you write C# code, you
will come to like python's syntax. 
 
When you have specific CLR <--> python questions, you can always trust this
mailing list to help you out.
 
Regards,
Richard.

------------
IronPython almost has full Python 2.4 compliance, so it is not very
different from Python at all.

In addition 'translating' MSDN docs for use with IronPython is quite easy.

At ResolverSystems we are building a full desktop application using
IronPython and encountering very few difficulties. The only .NET
functionality we have found that isn't exposed to IronPython (for which we
have had to use C#) are a few parts needed for our functional tests. 
Only our program launcher uses C# in our production code.

This means you should find it easy to interface .NET code to IronPython. 
There are possibly some limitations that I haven't yet found. For example, I
believe it is not yet possible to compile Python scripts.

If you have specific Python questions then comp.lang.python is a good place
to ask :

http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.python?hl=en

For a good introduction to Python, the following online book is often
recommended :

http://diveintopython.org/

For IronPython questions and Python-.NET interaction questions, this is a
good forum to ask.

Hopefully in the next few days I will do a brief tutorial on using Windows
Forms with IronPython. It will only show the basics, but that ought to be
enough to show how to read the MSDN docs from a Python perspective.

All the best,

Fuzzyman