[IronPython] Ironclad v0.5 released

[William Reade]

(Cross-posted from the c-extensions-for-ironpython google group -- I 
thought a few people here might be interested too :))

Hi all

Our original goal for 0.5 was to import numpy, from IronPython, and do 
something with it. With one monstrous caveat, we have reached that goal; 
the problem is that you need to comment out line 532 of 
numpy.core.numerictypes.py before it'll import. That line reads 
"_unicodesize = array('u','U1').itemsize", and fails trying to construct 
a unicode array; however, since _unicodesize appears to be unreferenced, 
we feel reasonably comfortable ignoring it for now.

Once numpy is imported, you can create integer arrays and do a few 
things with them; of course, the number of things you can do is still 
dwarfed by the number of things you can't do. You can add, subtract and 
multiply integer arrays, and raise them to integer powers... and that's 
about it.

We will continue to work on numpy; immediate goals include getting 
floating-point arrays to print out as numbers instead of NaNs, hooking 
up the many missing PyTypeObject fields, and implementing more API 
functions as we encounter them. I don't have a very clear goal in mind 
for v0.6 as yet; making floating-point arrays work properly is obviously 
critical, but further steps are not yet clear. If anyone is
particularly keen to start using numpy with IronPython, please get in 
touch; I'm keen to know what you want to do with it, so I can focus on 
features I know are valuable :).

Best
William