Microsoft has released a version of the Python programming language for its .NET development platform.
The .NET platform provides a common interface and libraries of commonly used functions to help developers write applications for versions of the Windows OS.
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Dynamic languages such as the open-source Python help application developers by reducing the amount of complex code they have to write, instead relying on the underlying capabilities of a runtime library of functions provided by the language developer, Microsoft said on a Web page about the project.
In IronPython 1.0 Beta 1, Microsoft has brought those two aspects together, integrating the Python programming language and its Common Language Runtime (CLR) for .NET, allowing it to use .NET libraries, according to information published on the company's Web site.
Microsoft is making efforts to have the "plethora of dynamic languages out there run well on our platform," Jim Hugunin, a Microsoft software design engineer, said in a November video presentation on the company's Web site.
Hugunin, who works on the Common Language Runtime Team, said that platform is good for running its variation of Python. "My early results with running Python on the platform showed that Python could run as fast as the standard C-based implementation running on top of the CLR," he said.
Hugunin was the creator of Jython, a popular hybrid of Java and Python.
IronPython's source code will be available as part of Microsoft's Shared Source Initiative. Microsoft said new beta versions of IronPython will be released about every three weeks but there is no set schedule.