The great thing about CPython is that it comes with the batteries
included. The problem with IronPython is that some of these batteries
just don't fit - in particular, most of the the C extensions don't
work. We'd like to help fix at least some of this problem, to help
people who use IronPython to use their CPython scripts without having to
port everything over to .NET.
Solving the general problem - plugging an arbitrary C extension into
IronPython - is a huge project, and we're not even sure we could work
out *how much work it is* without a lot of investigation. What we
intend to do is to solve a specific problem, to integrate just one
extension, and to use that project as a testbed to examine the
possibilities for getting other extensions working - and perhaps, in the
long term, solving the general problem.
We think that any solution like this will be valuable not just to us,
but to the Python community as a whole. And so, we want to make it Open
Source.
Right now, we'd really like to hear from people about the following:
* Who wants to get involved? We're really keen on working with
other people on this.
* Which module should we go for? NumPy looks like a good start, as
it gives us a start on getting SciPy working. But perhaps there
are better choices.
* Should this be a new project, or should we be talking to other
people about getting it into other projects?
* Which license? If we're to work on it with a view to building it
into Resolver One, then it will need to be
commercial-software-friendly. Apart from that - we have no view.
* What is the best architecture? We're thinking of this as being a
bit of C# managed code to interface with the C extension, and a
thin Python wrapper on top. The module's existing C extension and
Python code would "sandwich" this layer. Let us know if this is a
silly idea :-)
* Is there anything else we should be thinking about to get this
started?
Any thoughts much appreciated!
Regards,
Giles
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Giles Thomas
MD & CTO, Resolver Systems Ltd.
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
+44 (0) 20 7253 6372
We're hiring! http://www.resolversystems.com/jobs/
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