[IronPython] Jim Hugunin's web log.

Neuruss luismg at gmx.net
Tue Aug 31 03:46:35 EDT 2004


> Hugunin has said his job is to "make the CLR better for dynamic languages".
> It's unclear to me that directive is synonymous with "develop IronPython
> further"; he could invent his own new language and implement that, or work
> with other CLR-based projects.  I wouldn't conclude that Microsoft is
> adopting Python as a supported tool, or even that Python is Hugunin's
> primary focus, until he actually says that's his goal.

I agree. I think the primary focus of Microsoft is to make the CLR the
best and most attractive development platform, and a good way to
achieve this is by making it more friendly to as many languages as
possible, including scripting ones.
That's the reason they hired Jim Hugunin. Not only to develop python
for the CLR, but to improve the CLR for all the scripting languages
and to investigate the best ways to implement these languages for the
CLR.

As for the concerns about Microsoft "hijacking" python, I think they
probable go too far. We all know what MS did in the past, but this
time, I think they shifted their policies drastically.

There's a whole move of opening their source and submitting standards
that confirm that their new strategy is stabilishing .NET as "the"
platform.
In this task, open source developers have an important place.

Regarding Jim Hugunin, he already implied in his comments that his
intentions are to impement python as close to the standard
implementation as posible. He even consults Gudo regularly on this
subject. And seeing what he did with Jython, there's no reason to
disbelieve.



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