[IronPython] IronPython 2.0 Alpha 1 Released

[Michael Foord]

Hello Dino,

Wow - this seems like a big deal. :-)

Does IronPython 2 still support hosting multiple IronPython engines ?

Thanks

Michael Foord
http://www.voidspace.org.uk/ironpython/index.shtml

Dino Viehland wrote:
>
> Hello IronPython Community,
>
> We have just released IronPython 2.0 Alpha 1. IronPython 2.0 will be 
> the first release of IronPython built upon a common dynamic language 
> runtime (DLR) as well as targeting version 2.5 of Python. These 
> release notes list what is new in IronPython 2.0, a brief overview of 
> the DLR, and what to expect from the 2.0 release.
>
>
> One major focus during this release will be further improving our 
> conformance with CPython. We’ve already made several improvements, for 
> example one is that our type system no longer contains a hierarchy of 
> types: now type(type) is type. We have also fixed a number of issues 
> related to various statements such as imports and function definitions 
> inside of exec or eval. There have also been a number of other small 
> issues fixed that our users reported to us.
>
> IronPython 2.0 will also be the first major release to support 2.5 out 
> of the box. In IronPython 1.x, and in this initial alpha release, 
> users must enable this with a command line switch. During the 2.0 
> release cycle we will flush out the remaining 2.5 features and 
> permanently enable this option. We will also start looking at 
> supporting v2.6 features via command line switch and start some 
> experimentation around the 3.0 features. In particular, we are excited 
> about looking at the new bytes and string types as well as formatting 
> options that we believe will fit nicely with .NET.
>
> IronPython 2.0 is also the first release built upon the Dynamic 
> Language Runtime: a shared runtime for dynamic languages on .NET. The 
> DLR both reduces the amount of work to create new dynamic languages on 
> .NET enables rich interoperability between dynamic languages, and 
> provides a shared module for consuming those languages from 
> applications. We are particularly excited about the ability to share 
> code across dynamic languages enabling users to share libraries 
> without worrying the particular language in which the library is 
> written. Over time, the DLR will expand and improve bringing language 
> developers more benefits from this shared infrastructure. We also look 
> forward to seeing a new era of programmable apps that can support a 
> wide range of options for end-users.
>
> When we started working on the DLR we initially used the IronPython 
> v1.0 code base. From there we extracted the core concepts that were 
> common to dynamic languages, generalized the concepts that were 
> specific to Python, expanded the framework to provide rich support for 
> other dynamic languages, and exposed all of the languages via a common 
> interface. Starting with IronPython 1.0 was an obvious choice because 
> it had already captured many of the best practices for building 
> dynamic languages on .NET and had done a great job leveraging many of 
> the underlying features of .NET. In IronPython 2.0 all of these best 
> practices are expanded and implemented with an eye on maximizing 
> forward compatibility with new features in .NET v3.5 such as LINQ and 
> extension methods. Moreover, the DLR exposes this functionality to the 
> language implementer via a small set of core concepts that all dynamic 
> language implementations can share.
>
> One additional change in this release is that we’re moving to use the 
> Microsoft Permissive License for IronPython 2.0. Our original release 
> of IronPython predated the Microsoft Permissive License, and so we 
> created a custom license specifically for Iron Python. After releasing 
> Iron Python, we created new Microsoft Shared Source licenses, 
> including the Microsoft Permissive License, to facilitate and 
> standardize source code licensing for appropriate Microsoft projects. 
> We believe our users appreciate consistency in licensing from 
> Microsoft. Therefore, because we are now using the more modern 
> Microsoft Permissive License where appropriate for similar current 
> source code releases, we feel we should offer IronPython under the 
> Microsoft Permissive License as well.
>
> Note because this is an alpha release there is also some missing 
> functionality that was formerly present in v1.0. This includes CodeDom 
> support, the static compiler that produced .NET assemblies, support 
> for creating strongly typed delegates to script code, as well as a 
> drastically changed hosting API. We will be bringing this 
> functionality back to future releases in the IronPython 2.0 series as 
> well many other improvements.
> You can download IronPython v2.0 at: 2.0 Alpha 
> <http://www.codeplex.com/IronPython/Release/ProjectReleases.aspx?ReleaseId=438>
>
> If you’d like more details about the DLR, Jim will be using his blog 
> to post design notes as they are written over the next couple of weeks 
> – http://blogs.msdn.com/hugunin.
>
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