15.5. Summary

The integration of IronPython with the underlying .NET runtime is what makes it such a joy to work with. This extends to embedding IronPython in C# and VB.NET. Creating and using language engines is straightforward (once you know the magic incantations), so experimenting is easy and enables things that previously might have required writing your own scripting language!

There is a natural complication when using objects created by a dynamic language from statically typed languages; this is something that can and will^[30] get easier, but there are many ways you can minimize the intricacy. One useful principle is to do as much as possible inside the engine. If you do your type checking and error handling in Python, then you can guarantee to return a known type into your statically typed code. When you really want to work with a dynamic object, then ObjectOperations is your friend.

^[30] For example, see the discussion about C# 4.0 at http://channel9.msdn.com/posts/Charles/C-40-Meet-the-Design-Team/.