Pythonwin and .NET

infobot infobot at skinnyhippo.com
Sun Sep 9 01:08:46 EDT 2001


Roman Suzi <rnd at onego.ru> wrote :
> I thought .NET has some kind of assembly-like bytecode, so Python could
> just compile into it (like Jython to Java's).  If this is not true and
> .NET's lowest level is higher than Java's bytecode level, 

As I understand it, that is in fact the case. With Java, the language 
itself (ie. java) was the "platform". With .Net, a common language 
runtime means that we can all continue using our favourite languages. 
Or so the theory goes.  Personally, it sounds better than Java.

However, I have a sneaky suspicion that, in practise, unless you're 
using C# or VB you won't be able to use it to its full potential.


Mark Hammond wrote:
> So if .NET has all the features necessary to allow Python to be fully 
> utilized by other .NET languages, many shops will simply choose to use 
> these other languages instead of Python - braces aren't *that* bad :)

Seems to me that if our goal is wider acceptance of Python, then it's
a catch22 situation. Either 
(a) python won't be able to work fully with .Net or 
(b) python WILL work fully with .Net but then so will 
    other languages and people will use those languages. 

However, if our goal is enabling today's Python developers (as well
as tomorrow's Python developers who are coming to the language for
reasons other than .Net) then being able to use .Net is definitely
a plus. 

On that note, I'm now trying to do some win32 work with MSExchange 
and Python. However, I have so much Windows-based work ahead of me
that I have to ask myself now whether I should switch over to VB for
the project. May I ask what one can do with VB that can not be done
with Python ? Or should all COM/DCOM services be available to the
Python developer on Win32 ?  

chas

ps. Your "Python & Win32" book, btw, is excellent, Mark - taught me 
    many things about Windows from an OS pov as well as Python that 
    I was unaware of.  Great format too.



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