Foreword

IronPython brings together two of my favorite things: the elegant Python programming language and the powerful .NET platform.

I’ve been a fan of the Python language for almost 15 years, ever since it was recommended to me by a fellow juggler while we passed clubs in a park. From the start I found Python to be a simple and elegant language that made it easy to express my ideas in code. I’m amazed by Python’s ability to appeal to a broad range of developers, from hard-core hackers to amateur programmers, including scientists, doctors, and animators. I’ve been teaching my ten-year-old son to program, and even he tells me that “Python is a great language to learn with.” Beyond teaching my son, I’ve tried to contribute to the Python community that gave me this great language and continues to drive it forward. Prior to IronPython, I started the Numeric Python and Jython open source projects.