[IronPython] Conflicting information with Ironpython and MapWindowGIS interop

[Bruce Bromberek]

I'm trying to drive MapWindows GIS from an Ironpython script to
automate some tasks.  MapWindow is in C#, and I have generated the
Interop Assembly, and I can load the MapWinGIS namespace.
Following this example in C#

//create a new instance for MapWinGIS.Shapefile
//MapWinGIS.Shapefile  is a data provider for ESRI Shapefile
MapWinGIS.Shapefile shapefile1 = new MapWinGIS.Shapefile();
//Define the data source for MapWinGIS.Shapefile instance
shapefile1.Open(@"D:\GISSampleData\base.shp", null );

So I did the following:
>>> import clr
>>> clr.AddReference('MapWindow.Interfaces')
>>> clr.AddReference('MapWinGeoProc')
>>> clr.AddReference('MapWinUtility')
>>> clr.AddReference('MapWinInterfaces')
>>> clr.AddReference('Interop.MapWinGIS')
>>> import MapWinGIS
>>> shapefile1 = MapWinGIS.Shapefile
>>> help(shapefile1.Open)
Help on method_descriptor:

Open(...)
    Open(self, str ShapefileName, ICallback cBack) -> bool

>>> shapefile1.Open(r"G:\DLS\BAB\2010 USPS GIS\ADC_Layer\ADC_ALBANY_NY_120.shp",None)
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
TypeError: expected IShapefile, got str

Not being a C# master, I thought maybe I'm accessing the objects
correctly.  Try again using IShapefile instead of Shapefile and I got
this

>>> t = MapWinGIS.IShapefile
>>> dir(t)
['BeginPointInShapefile', 'CacheExtents', 'CanUseSpatialIndex',
'CdlgFilter', 'CellValue', 'Close', 'CreateNew',
'CreateNewWithShapeID', 'CreateSpatialIndex', 'Dissolve',
'EditCellValue', 'EditClear', 'EditDeleteField', 'EditDeleteShape',
'EditInsertField', 'EditInsertShape', 'EditingShapes', 'EditingTable',
'EndPointInShapefile', 'ErrorMsg', 'Extents', 'Field', 'FieldByName',
'FileHandle', 'Filename', 'GenerateLabels', 'GetIntersection',
'GlobalCallback', 'HasSpatialIndex', 'InvertSelection',
'IsSpatialIndexValid', 'Key', 'Labels', 'LastErrorCode', 'NumFields',
'NumSelected', 'NumShapes', 'Open', 'PointInShape',
'PointInShapefile', 'Projection', 'QuickExtents', 'QuickPoint',
'QuickPoints', 'QuickQueryInEditMode', 'RefreshExtents',
'RefreshShapeExtents', 'Resource', 'Save', 'SaveAs', 'SelectAll',
'SelectByShapefile', 'SelectNone', 'SelectShapes',
'SelectionDrawingOptions', 'Shape', 'ShapeSelected', 'ShapefileType',
'SpatialIndexMaxAreaPercent', 'StartEditingShapes',
'StartEditingTable', 'StopEditingShapes', 'StopEditingTable',
'UseQTree', 'UseSpatialIndex', '__doc__', '__repr__', 'numPoints']
>>> t.Open.__doc__
'Open(self, str ShapefileName, ICallback cBack) -> bool'

>>> a = r"C:\2010 USPS GIS\Shapefiles\ADC ATLANTA GA 303.shp"
>>> t.Open(a,None)
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
TypeError: expected IShapefile, got str

Can anyone tell me what I'm missing?

Thanks.

Bruce