Python and .NET integration

Question

I'm currently looking at python because I really like the text parsing capabilities and the nltk library, but traditionally I am a .Net/C# programmer. I don't think IronPython is an integration point for me because I am using NLTK and presumably would need a port of that library to the CLR. I've looked a little at Python for .NET and was wondering if this was a good place to start. Is there a way to marshal a python class into C#? Also, is this solution still being used? Better yet, has anyone done this? One thing I am considering is just using a persistence medium as a go-between (parse in Python, store in MongoDB, and run site in .NET).

Answer 1

NLTK is pure-python and thus can be made to run on IronPython easily. A search turned up this ticket - all one has to do is install a couple of extra Python libraries that don't come by default with IronPython.

This is probably the easiest way for you to integrate. Otherwise, you'll have to either run Python as a subprocess, which sounds complex, or run Python as a server that answers your requests. This is probably the most scalable, though complex, approach. If you go this way, consider Twisted to simplify the server code.

But do try IronPython first...