Aspen on IronPython: notYET

Having stuck my neck out, I figured I'd give IronPython a whirl. It wasn't any harder to set up than CPython on Windows. I downloaded the ZIP, and unpacked it to C:\IronPython-1.0.1, which I then added to PATH. Apparently I already have .NET 2.0 installed, because I now have ipy at the command-line!

The next issue is libraries: IronPython doesn't seem to obey PYTHONPATH (no?). Manually placing C:\Python24\Lib in sys.path, I can now import os, email, etc.

The reason I tried importing email is because it's written by Barry Warsaw, and he uses ASCII form feeds (^) in his code. I do too, but IronPython doesn't like them unless they're followed by a line break. Boo.

So to answer my question: setting up an IronPython development environment doesn't hurt, assuming you're already testing CPython on Windows. But there is still an indeterminate portability tax. For now I'll take Fuzzyman's advice: "Perhaps you should wait until you have some users who need this."

In other news, did you know Microsoft has an Open Source code hosting site? Take Microsoft's dull sense of craftsmanship, and sprinkle it liberally with Web 2.0 dust (tag clouds, gradients, voting, RSS). Stir once. I wonder if they did a SQL Server backend for svn? Ok, I'm being mean, sorry. :^) Feed back to Chad Whitacre.