IronPythonMan to the rescue!
I’m surprised that IronPython doesn’t get more love in the ESRI development world. Beyond Matthew’s blog posts I can’t recall seeing anything really being done. Considering how important .NET is to ESRI, it wouldn’t hurt to see a little embrace of IronPython.
ArcObjects is hard enough to write with C#, so why not allow devs to use the simple Python. Of course Matthew proves you can do it yourself, but it seems like a great combo, writing by Python code for geoprocessing and IronPython code to work with ArcObjects. Heck, why not throw in a little IronRuby for those who roll that way?
I’d really like to see an ESRI wiki were devs can add their own help for those who want to extend ArcObjects more directions than just the C#/VB.NET/C++ ways currently offered.
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I’m glad to see that the ESRI interop assemblies are going to be working in newer versions of IronPython. I investigated this a few months back and there was nothing I could do to get ArcObjects and python playing together in any form – the .NET interop assemblies didn’t play with IronPython, and COM did not play well with win32com either.
Interested you should say that, Bill. I tried IronPython with Manifold on .NET and couldn’t get it to work either. But I’m no .NET-head and usually avoid MS tools like the plague, so what do I know?
I’d like to see more emphasis on IronPython too…to the point of official ESRI support.
Those in Birmingham UK for EuroPython 2009 in a couple of weeks time can get more info in a talk from Alex Willmer on just this
http://www.europython.eu/talks/talk_abstracts/index.html#talk8
I`m excited – actual GIS at a python conference
How would that work with their non-Windows offerings though? If I am not mistaken, IronPython cannot be run on *nix platforms. Perhaps jython could be a solution though? Similar to IronPython, but built on the Java platform. Does anyone have any experience doing that?
I would try the community version of Ipy. IPy works with Moonlight (Silverlight on Mono) as well. If you want to go with just the gp, then try ironclad (google code), but of course this is Cpy, and not Ipy.
James – I was just thinking the same thing – especially as ESRI phases out the VBA scripting environment. One of the sore spots of working with ArcGIS is that they use three different languages depending on whether you were extending the ArcMap environment (VBA), automating geoprocessing (Python) or doing real GIS programming leveraging ArcObjects (typically C#).
As for Michalis’ comment, the problem isn’t IronPython, it’s ESRI having drunk so deeply of the Microsoft KoolAid in the 90s. Moving the core Arc/Info code from Unix commands to COM objects was a good way to get away from *nix and onto “the mainstream platform”. Too bad the Microsoft KoolAid is basically incompatible with anything else.
Love this ad: ftp://forum.manifold.net/attachments/7B/84603/AdsByGoogle.png
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[...] the tool to do it all. I ordered a book on Iron Python the other day and then actually saw post on James Fee’s blog about Iron Python & ArcGIS. I would love to see Python turn into the ultimate super-glue language that connects ArcGIS with [...]