Check out Jon Udell’s screencast on IronPython. This is getting very interesting – Python with access to deep underlying windows facilities like Avalon and XAML. I’ve read that the performance is also quite good.

There’s a lot to this dynamic language on the .Net CLR / JVM thing. Tragetting multiple languages to the same runtime virtual machine tackles cross-language integration at a deep, natural level. Definitely goes on the list of things to try.

I find it interesting that Microsoft is taking the open approach to what can be hosted on CLR, versus the Sun, which has been very focused on Java as the language of choice. Yes, I realized Jython exists and is quite good, but my impression is that Microsoft is much more open to non C# things running on the .Net CLR than Sun is about non Java things running on the JVM. Heck, just look at the names – Java Virtual Machine vs. Common Language Runtime.

Update: Sun hires the JRuby developers:

Does this mean that Sun is still operating in a ”Java-only“ world? · No. We are actively interested in supporting non-Java technologies such as PHP, Perl, Python, and Rails on our system and OS platforms. And we are quite aware that many Solaris systems are running non-Java workloads. In particular, I’m concerned about the slow progress on the next-generation native Ruby engine and would like to help there too.

Doesn’t quite say Sun wants to support non-Java on the JVM, but it’s getting closer.