[IronPython] Writing cross-language libraries that appear native

[Doug Blank]

On Tue, Apr 5, 2011 at 3:05 AM, Markus Schaber
<m.schaber at 3s-software.com> wrote:
> Hi, Doug,
>
> I it won't be possible to make it "feel naturally" with every language, simply because the languages have very different naming conventions (C# mandates CamelCase, Python prefers words_with_underscores, ...) and programming paradigms.

It is true that each language has conventions, and also true that some
languages have multiple conventions (for example, there are CamelCase
and underscore Python programmers). But there are some options that
just aren't possible. For example, it was not even possible to access
a lowercased class name from IronRuby (at least when I tried a while
back). My goal was to document that kind of issue. Also, the naming
convention isn't so important (to us) as is a natural way of passing
parameters and getting back results.

> But on the other hand, you should keep in mind that .NET was designed as a multi-paradigm environment, and that all those Languages were implemented with this in mind.

Well, not all .NET languages are implemented by Microsoft, and many
follow their own conventions. I'm trying to come up with some
guidelines for writing good libraries that work across a wide spectrum
(from Boo to F#).

> Most of the dynamic languages have very clever parameter resolution and automatic casting mechanisms implemented, as they offer easy access to the whole .NET standard library - this will automatically apply to your interface, too. E. G. any python list and tuple can be passed to a function taking a IEnumerable<Foo>, python will create an auto-casting enumerator, and will throw when the sequence contains elements not compatible to Foo.

Yes, the Iron* languages are excellent in this regard. I'm hoping that
more languages will adopt that autocasting code, if not more of the
DLR.

> Nevertheless, my concrete points of advice are:
>
> - I think the most important thing is that you make a simple, clearly structured API.
>
> - Be generous but exact in what you accept. For example if you need a sequence of Foo as parameter, accept IEnumerable<Foo>.
>  * No need to use IEnumerable and cast yourself - more Code to type, the dynamic language binding will auto-cast for you, and the statically typed languages like C# and F# profit from the stricter declaration.
>  * Accepting IList<Foo> or ICollection<Foo> is too strict for the main method, but if your algorithm can profit from indexing or knowing the size, you may provide them as optimized overloads.
>
> - Adhere to the coding standards / naming conventions in the language you use to implement.
>
> - Take care that all your functionality is exposed in CLS conformant ways. (IMHO, it is okay to provide optimized non-CLS conformant alternative ways of access. One example is that you should provide access methods for all overloaded operators. Browse the Web and MSDN for CLS conformance, you'll find lots of guidelines.)

If you could give an example guideline url, that would be useful...
maybe I'm using bad search terms.

> - After drafting your interface (or implementing the first alpha), ask users of the target languages for their advice, or implement a test application in all of the languages.

Yes, I'm writing examples in all of the .NET languages and libraries
that we [1] support [2].

> (I personally don't have any experience with IronRuby, and simply assumed that they use similar mechanisms like IronPython, so take my advice with a grain of salt.)

IronRuby does some cleaver things such as renaming CamelCase items to
camel_case. But most languages don't.

I'll eventually document all this on a website (can I use your
suggestions?) This may be beyond the scope of the IronPython website,
though.

-Doug

[1] http://pyjamaproject.org/
[2] http://svn.cs.brynmawr.edu/viewvc/Pyjama/trunk/examples/

> Regards,
> Markus
>
>
>> -----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
>> Von: users-bounces at lists.ironpython.com [mailto:users-
>> bounces at lists.ironpython.com] Im Auftrag von Doug Blank
>> Gesendet: Montag, 4. April 2011 17:25
>> An: Discussion of IronPython
>> Betreff: [IronPython] Writing cross-language libraries that appear native
>>
>> I'm working on writing C# libraries which can be imported by a variety of
>> .NET languages, DLR and otherwise, which appear native to the language
>> importing them.
>>
>> For example, writing a C# function that can be used naturally in
>> IronPython as if it were written in Python, IronRuby as if it were written
>> in Ruby, and F# as if it were written in F#, etc.
>>
>> I've encountered some gotchas that I thought I'd share, and looking for
>> any other points of advice in writing cross-language libraries.
>>
>> 1. IronRuby strings aren't really strings, so you need to pass them in as
>> an object, and call .ToString().
>>
>>     public static string expects_string(object val) {
>>         return val.ToString();
>>     }
>>
>> 2. F# 2.0 doesn't seem to automatically convert a type to the associated
>> nullable type, so avoid nullable types as parameters.
>>
>>     // AVOID:
>>     public static double? expects_nullable(double? var1=null) {
>>         return var1;
>>     }
>>
>>     // BETTER:
>>     public static double? expects_nullable() {
>>         return null;
>>     }
>>     public static double expects_nullable(double var1) {
>>         return var1;
>>     }
>>
>> 3. IronPython and IronRuby lists and dictionaries implement IList and
>> IDictionary, so no problem with those.
>>
>>     public static IDictionary<object,object> make_dict(object val) {
>>         if (val as IDictionary<object,object> != null) {
>>             return ((IDictionary<object,object>)val);
>>         } else
>>             throw new System.ArgumentException("object is not a
>> dictionary");
>>     }
>>
>>     public static IList<object> make_list(object val) {
>>         if (val as IList<object> != null) {
>>             return ((IList<object>)val);
>>         } else
>>             throw new System.ArgumentException("object is not a list");
>>     }
>>
>> Any other suggestions?
>>
>> -Doug
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