IronPython vs. C# for small-scale projects

Question

I currently use Python for most of my programming projects (mainly rapid development of small programs and prototypes). I'd like to invest time in learning a language that gives me the flexibility to use various Microsoft tools and APIs whenever the opportunity arises. I'm trying to decide between IronPython and C#. Since Python is my favorite programming language (mainly because of its conciseness and clean syntax), IronPython sounds like the ideal option. Yet after reading about it a little bit I have several questions.

For those of you who have used IronPython, does it ever become unclear where classic Python ends and .NET begins? For example, there appears to be significant overlap in functionality between the .NET libraries and the Python standard library, so when I need to do string operations or parse XML, I'm unclear which library I'm supposed to use. Also, I'm unclear when I'm supposed to use Python versus .NET data types in my code. For example, which of the following would I be using in my code?

d = {} 

or

d = System.Collections.Hashtable()

(By the way, it seems that if I do a lot of things like the latter I might lose some of the conciseness, which is why I favor Python in the first place.)

Another issue is that a number of Microsoft's developer tools, such as .NET CF and Xbox XNA, are not available in IronPython. Are there more situations where IronPython wouldn't give me the full reach of C#?

Answer 1

I've built a large-scale application in IronPython bound with C#.

It's almost completely seamless. The only things missing in IronPython from the true "python" feel are the C-based libraries (gotta use .NET for those) and IDLE.

The language interacts with other .NET languages like a dream... Specifically if you embed the interpreter and bind variables by reference.

By the way, a hash in IronPython is declared:

d = {}

Just be aware that it's actually an IronPython.Dict object, and not a C# dictionary. That said, the conversions often work invisibly if you pass it to a .NET class, and if you need to convert explicitly, there are built-ins that do it just fine.

All in all, an awesome language to use with .NET, if you have reason to.

Just a word of advice: Avoid the Visual Studio IronPython IDE like the plague. I found the automatic line completions screwed up on indentation, between spaces and tabs. Now -that- is a difficult-to-trace bug inserted into code.

Answer 2

I'd suggest taking a look at Boo [http://boo.codehaus.org/], a .NET-based language with a syntax inspired by Python, but which provides the full range of .NET 3.5 functionality.

IronPython is great for using .NET-centric libraries -- but it isn't well-suited to creating them due to underlying differences in how the languages do typing. As Boo does inference-based typing at compile time except where duck typing is explicitly requested (or a specific type is given by the user), it lets you build .NET-centric libraries easily usable from C# (and other languages') code, which IronPython isn't suitable for; also, as it has to do less introspection at runtime, Boo compiles to faster code.