[IronPython] Announcement: Project to get some CPython C extensions running under IronPython

[Hernan M Foffani]

Definetly it's a huge work.

> 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?

NumPy is already big. I'd start with a very small project like the
sample at http://docs.python.org/ext/simpleExample.html. Sort of a
proof of concept.
Have you evaluated that you may need to port a big portion of the Python
C API (Py* functions and macros.)?

> 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 :-)

As someone else already said, you ought to consider COM too.

Another aproach is to completly forget the *CPython* extension. Pick
the domain C code core and add a .NET wrapper. Swig can you help here:
http://www.swig.org/tutorial.html

In these two approaches a Python compatibility layer API will be needed.
Thus, the programmer can use the same API from IronPython that she
used to use from CPython.

> Is there anything else we should be thinking about to get this started?

Hummm... I'm tempted to add a silly joke here but I'm going to refrain
myself now. ;)

Regards,
-Hernán.