[IronPython] IDE status info

[J. Merrill]

I am not affiliated with the company or product I'm about to discuss in any way; I have not purchased it myself.

For those who are discouraged by the need to have a version of Visual Studio that costs money (as the Express version doesn't support plug-ins) in order to get IronPython integration with a commercial-quality IDE, there is a cheaper alternative than purchasing the full Visual Studio.

The company RemObjects has built Chrome -- a .NET-only compiler for the Delphi language (aka Object Pascal), and they've made a number of enhancements to it to better support .NET concepts.  (In many ways it compares to Delphi like IronPython compares to CPython.  Do not expect VCL support, however.)  The command-line version of the compiler is free to download, and is available for Mono as well as for Windows.  What they sell is the integration of Chrome into the Visual Studio IDE (and other products unrelated to Chrome); they have a "student / non-commercial academic" version for [as of today] EUR 49.

Until recently, you had to own VS to use Chrome's IDE integration.  They have now made it possible to buy "Chrome for Visual Studio" as before, or you can buy "Chrome with Visual Studio" (Chrome inside a copy of VS) for about EUR 50 more (EUR 26 more for student version).  It is my impression that you will be able to plug IronPython into that version of VS, as they discuss on their site the value of being able to use 3rd-party plug-ins for VS in conjunction with Chrome.  You can see the prices at
    http://www.remobjects.com/order/
Scroll down past the subscriptions and suites (averting your eyes from the prices on the right, lest yee be scared off!) until you get to the Chrome section.  Also, Delphi users get a price break.

My apologies if anyone thinks this is an inappropriate post; I'm just trying to help those with small wallets get a good IDE for IronPython -- and there's little wrong with Chrome for those (Delphi users) who already have their heads around Object Pascal.

At 05:52 PM 8/30/2006, S H Yoon wrote
>http://community.sharpdevelop.net/forums/thread/3770.aspx
>
>This gentleman Andy Tao appears to be working on IPY IDE and hit some problems,
[snip] 

J. Merrill / Analytical Software Corp