[Numpy-discussion] Request for advice: project to get NumPy working in IronPython

[Travis E. Oliphant]

Giles Thomas wrote:
> Hi,
>
> At Resolver Systems, we have a product that is written in IronPython - 
> the .NET Python implementation - and allows users to use that language 
> to script a spreadsheet-like interface.  Because they're using 
> IronPython, they can access their existing .NET objects and libraries, 
> which has worked out really well for us and for them.  But there's an 
> increasing number of users who would like access to CPython C 
> extensions - in particular, NumPy.
An IronPython compatible version of NumPy would be great.    Of course 
it could be done by using C# to write NumPy, but I'm not sure that this 
would really be any less work than creating a "glue" layer that allowed 
most (or all) C-Python extensions to work with IronPython.


>     * How do people feel about a source-code-compatible solution,
>       where (perhaps) we would maintain a project that basically
>       provided an alternative makefile for NumPy - or, even better, we
>       could work with the NumPy developers to contribute a
>       .NET/IronPython package.
>
Hmm.. I don't know enough about C# I guess, but would a different 
setup.py file really be enough?  Would this have some sort of C->C# 
translator.  I would be surprised if that actually worked, though.
>
>    *
>
>
>     * Would it be better to try for some kind of "binary
>       compatibility", where we'd write some kind of "glue" that sat
>       between the existing C extension .pyd files and the IronPython
>       engine?  Our gut feeling is that this would be much more work,
>       but we might be missing something.
>
I'm not sure that this would really be any more work than the C->C# 
translator that you are talking about above, but then again I've never 
done any C to C# translation.
>
>     * What should the work's relationship to the NumPy project be?
>
This is flexible.   It could be distributed with NumPy or else simply 
advertised by NumPy.


Best regards,

-Travis Oliphant