# Review of IronPython in Action and Its Focus on Windows Programming

DevFeed: [Review of IronPython in Action and Its Focus on Windows Programming](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/ironpython-in-action-and-the-decline-of-windows-38881.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<http://neopythonic.blogspot.com/2009/06/ironpython-in-action-and-decline-of.html>)

Author: Guido van Rossum (noreply@blogger.com)

Published: 2009-06-26T19:05:00Z

Content type: opinion

Language: en

Sources: [Guido van Rossum](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/guido-van-rossum.md>)

Topics: [Python](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/python.md>), [.NET](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/net.md>), [C#](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/csharp.md>), [Programming](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/programming.md>), [Development](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/development.md>)

Tags: [book-review](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/book-review.md>), [c-sharp](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/c-sharp.md>), [net](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/net.md>), [programming](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/programming.md>), [python](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/python.md>), [software](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/software.md>), [windows](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/windows.md>)

## AI overview

This opinion article reviews IronPython in Action by Michael Foord and Christian Muirhead. It praises the book's breadth, useful information, and running examples, while noting that IronPython developers working on .NET need familiarity with C# because of platform limitations and APIs designed for C#.

## Source excerpt

While CPython still rules on python-dev, especially with the excitement around Py3k, Python's alternative implementations are growing up: PyPy is now capable of running Django, Jython just released version 2.5, and IronPython has been releasing significant milestones like clockwork. I get a lot of satisfaction out of such milestones: they help establish Python as a language you can't ignore, no matter which platform you are using. Seeing a book like IronPython in Action, by Michael Foord and Christian Muirhead, is another milestone for IronPython. This is a solid work in every aspect, and something nobody using IronPython on .NET should be without. The book is chock full of useful information, presented along with a series of running examples, and covers almost every aspect of IronPython use imaginable. After reading the table of contents and the introduction by IronPython's creator Jim Hugunin, I couldn't help myself and skipped straight to appendix A, "A whirlwind tour of C#." This is a useful thing to have around for readers like myself who haven't really kept track of things in the .NET world. Maybe I'll comment more on C# another time. For now, let me just say that it seems a decent enough system programming language. The more relevant thing about C# is that you can't avoid learning it if you are developing on .NET, even when using IronPython. There just are too many issues where IronPython has to work around a limitation of C#. This happens often indirectly where a particular API was designed purely with C# in mind. And then there's the issue that Microsoft's API documentation focus on C#. (And VB.NET, I suppose, which after seeing some samples of in this book I have less desire to know than ever.) There are some introductory chapters -- some fluff about .NET and the CLR, an introduction to Python, and an introduction to with .NET objects from IronPython. The Python introduction has a slight emphasis on differences between IronPython and CPython, though there