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What is IronPython IDE ?
IronPython IDE is a GUI application written in C#. It is dedicated to the IronPython language which is a .NET implementation of the Python language. It is aimed at providing a nice, easy, full featured development environment for IronPython. The project is monitored by Ivan Chollet.
You can browse its source code in its repository.
IronPython is a truly powerful language leveraging the features of .NET with the productivity and abstraction of Python. IronPython IDE and IronPython run on all platforms. For that reason, it is positioned to become a leading choice for development of Python and .NET applications. And you can download IPIDE here !.
Ideas
People invented functionnal programming languages and OO features because they thought modularizing the conception of software would make easier the creative and development processes. Modularization, encapsulation and derivation have since then become the cornerstones of the OO and functionnal paradigms, and have proved to be very helpful. People wanted to build programming languages that match better the thinking process of human beings. Those people think that programming should not be more difficult than thinking. Both are only plain finite constructions.
Every team member at Lynanda is also a strong constructivist (or intuitionnist), however our aim with IronPython IDE is far less ambitious. In our humble opinion, coding should not be fundamentally separated from debugging or testing, nor it is different than conceptualizing. However, debugging and testing facilities are rather poor in most development environments. A dynamic language like Python is a great opportunity to build an interactive IDE taking the most of the interpreted nature of IronPython.
How does IronPython IDE look like ?
IronPython IDE tries to mimic the look & feel of Visual Studio, so that .NET programmers feel familiar with it, right from the beginning. IronPython IDE uses for its interface only raw .NET classes, excepted an extern dll to render nice code highlighting. This is likely to change as the IDE evolves and users demand grows, because .NET classes are rather poor in terms of UI features. Later will be better, but we may add some proprietary code to IronPython IDE someday.
Our aim is to provide a full featured IronPython editor and debugger.
Here are the features missing by now :
* An object explorer like the Class Explorer of Visual Studio. * A decent debugger. * The possibility to modifify source code "on the fly" while debugging. * More specifically, we would like to soften the distinction between the coding and the debugging parts. * Integration of test cases into the IDE. Test cases are no waste of time.
Getting IronPython IDE source code (and contribute !)
IronPython IDE compiles on the top of the .NET framework. It is quite easy to compile it on Mono but I would recommend to use a Windows box with Visual Studio 8.0, which is available everywhere on the Internet. Also, you should buy a license from Microsoft if you are using an unofficial version.
- Then, you will have to get a Subversion client. Subversion is a replacement for the old (but still good !) CVS. For Windows users (I assume that Linux users are easy with subversion), the recommended Subversion client is TortoiseSVN. This tool is nice and easy to use for those who don't know Subversion.
- After having installed your SVN client, use it to connect to this IronPython repository and download the source code of IronPython IDE.
- If everything worked as expected, you should be able to compile IronPython IDE with Visual Studio 8. If this is the case, Congratulations ! If you experienced problems, then take 5 min to read the Beginners HowTo.
