Customer Reviews

Pro IronPython (Expert's Voice in .NET)

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2 star:		(1)
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I am disappointed with this book. Let me start by saying what I was expecting from it, then I'll discuss what is actually in the book.

Given the title of Pro IronPython I was expecting:
- An in-depth presentation of the language. Instead we get a very light weight, very incomplete description. Do not expect a list of keywords or a grammar of the language. They are not there.
- A good description of how to use compiled IronPython code with other .Net languages. One of the main strengths of .Net is the ability to integrate DLL created with different languages. This is trivial with, say, C# and VB.Net but more complex with Python since the language is untyped. This topic is not addressed at all.
- Examples where the specificities of IronPython shine. The author does not present a single example that is easier in IronPython compared to C#.

What is presented then? We get a shallow presentation of the language followed by a series of other shallow applications (connecting to a database, writing page-behind code in Python) that provide no real understanding of IronPython.

When I read a book targeted at Professional developers, I expect to become an expert (think, Jeffrey Richter's .Net books, Steve McConnell's Code Complete, etc.). This book is not in the same league, by far.

This is a well written book and will stay on my desk as a ready reference. The book is well organized and it is easy to find what I need without having to search through too much background. The examples are clear and useful.

I picked up this book looking for more to do with python, and hadn't heard of the IronPython variant. While it's designed to work with the microsoft family of programming languages, python programmers will quickly pick up the differences. Alan Harris does a wonderful job of writing as though he was talking to you directly, instead of like a dry text book. He includes alot of side commentary, clear explanations and some humour to boot. The additional examples he included are great building blocks to solve problems that one might run across while working with IronPython and in most cases they can be adapted to regular python too.

If you're looking to use some IronPython in your programming, this book is the place to start.

The author claims in the introduction that this book is suitable both for programming beginners and for versed Python and/or .net programmets. The rest of the books fails miserably, probably due to that hubris. Avoid this publication.