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<h1>
IronPython %IRONPYTHON_VERSION%</h1>
<p>
IronPython is a new implementation of the Python programming language on .NET. The .NET Framework
is a managed programming model for Windows; Microsoft standardized part of it in <a href="http://www.ecma-international.org/">ECMA</a>
several years ago as the
<a href="http://www.ecma-international.org/publications/standards/Ecma-335.htm">Common Language Infrastructure</a> and
<a href="http://www.ecma-international.org/publications/standards/Ecma-334.htm">C# Language Specification</a>
standards.</p>
<p>
IronPython is fast - up to 1.8x faster than Python-2.4 on the standard pystone benchmark. It supports an interactive interpreter
with fully dynamic compilation. It is well integrated with
the rest of the framework and makes the whole .NET Framework class
library easily available to Python
programmers.</p>
<p>
You can get IronPython sources, binaries, and samples from
<a href="http://www.codeplex.com/ironpython">
www.codeplex.com/ironpython</a><span style="color: #000000">.
You can also get news, file bugs, and generally interact with the
IronPython team through this shared project site. There's a
mailing list you can join for discussing issues and releases if you
like.</span></p>
<p>
There's a good introductory tutorial at
<a href="Tutorial/Tutorial.htm">IronPython Tutorial</a>.</p>
<p>
IronPython has a high degree of compatibility with CPython, but
there are some differences. See
<a href="http://www.codeplex.com/Wiki/View.aspx?ProjectName=IronPython&title=Differences">IronPython Differences</a> document for details.</p>
<p>
IronPython %IRONPYTHON_VERSION% is suitable for building Python applications where you want
to make use of .NET Framework and pure python modules. There are still some
missing standard CPython libraries (See
<a href="http://www.codeplex.com/Wiki/View.aspx?ProjectName=IronPython&title=Differences">IronPython Differences</a> for details.), and there are some known issues
with the IronPython implementation
(see <a href="http://www.codeplex.com/ironpython">
www.codeplex.com/ironpython</a>).</p>
<p>
</p>
<h2>
Prerequisites</h2>
<p>
To run, IronPython %IRONPYTHON_VERSION% requires .NET Framework version 2.0 to be installed
on your system. You can install the latest version from Microsoft:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<a href="http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=0856eacb-4362-4b0d-8edd-aab15c5e04f5&DisplayLang=en">
Microsoft .NET Framework Version 2.0 Redistributable Package</a></li></ul>
<p>
IronPython should also run on any platform that implements the CLI specification v2.0.</p>
<p>
There are <a href="#BuilFromSource">more prerequisites</a> if you want to build IronPython from source.</p>
<p>
</p>
<h2>
Running IronPython</h2>
<p>If you did not download the binaries, you'll need to
<a href="#BuilFromSource">build IronPython</a> first. After building
IronPython or unpacking the binary distribution, you can complete the installation by
adding the IronPython installation directory to your PATH. To test the installation, you
should launch the interactive interpreter as shown below:</p>
<blockquote>
<pre>C:\IronPython>ipy
IronPython 1.0.2424 on .NET 2.0.50727.42
Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
>>> 2+2
4</pre>
</blockquote>
<p>You can use IronPython to run Python scripts by passing the script name on
the command-line just as with standard Python. If hello.py had the
displayed contents, the following ipy command line would run it:</p>
<blockquote>
<pre>Hello.py:
for i in xrange(3):
print "Hello World"
C:\IronPython>ipy Hello.py
Hello World
Hello World
Hello World
</pre>
</blockquote>
This simple example shows how you can start using WinForms from IronPython:
<blockquote>
<pre>C:\IronPython>ipy
IronPython 1.0.2424 on .NET 2.0.50727.42
Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
>>> import clr
>>> clr.AddReference("System.Windows.Forms")
>>> import System.Windows.Forms as WinForms
>>> WinForms.MessageBox.Show("Hello", "Hello World")
OK
</pre>
</blockquote>
<p>For more information on the clr.AddReference function, see the
<a href="Tutorial/Tutorial.htm#T1.3">Loading .NET Libraries</a> exercise in the
<a href="Tutorial/Tutorial.htm">IronPython Tutorial</a><span style="color: #000000">,
which has many examples of using IronPython in various ways.</span></p>
<p> </p>
<h2><a name="BuilFromSource"></a>Building IronPython from Source</h2>
<p>
If you downloaded the binaries from
<a href="http://www.codeplex.com/ironpython">www.codeplex.com/ironpython</a><span style="color: #000000">,
you do not need to build it. </span>To compile IronPython from the source code, you can install either Visual
Studio 2005 or .NET Framework 2.0 SDK using one
of the following
links:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<a href="http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=fe6f2099-b7b4-4f47-a244-c96d69c35dec&DisplayLang=en">
.NET Framework 2.0 Software Development Kit (SDK)</a> -- you must install
<a href="http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=0856eacb-4362-4b0d-8edd-aab15c5e04f5&DisplayLang=en">
Microsoft .NET Framework Version 2.0 Redistributable Package</a> prior
to installing the SDK</li><li>
<a href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio">Visual Studio 2005
</a> </li>
</ul>
<p>
IronPython can be built using <a href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio">Visual
Studio 2005</a> or
<a href="http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=fe6f2099-b7b4-4f47-a244-c96d69c35dec&DisplayLang=en">
.NET Framework 2.0 Software Development Kit (SDK)</a></p>
<h3>
Building using Visual Studio 2005</h3>
<p>
Open IronPython.sln in the Visual Studio 2005 and build (from menu: Build->Build Solution). Set IronPythonConsole as your startup project
in the Solution Explorer.</p>
<h3>
Building using .NET Framework 2.0 Software Development Kit</h3>
<p>
.NET Framework 2.0 SDK comes with the C# compiler and Microsoft's msbuild. After installing the SDK, open the .NET Framework SDK command prompt,
cd to the IronPython directory, and execute:</p>
<blockquote>
<pre>msbuild IronPython.sln</pre>
</blockquote>
<p>This will build IronPython.dll, IronMath.dll, ipy.exe, and ipyw.exe.</p>
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