There is an old adage, often used and much abused, “Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day.  Teach a man to fish and he will never want for food.”  And while this old saying is extremely tired and very much cliché, it is a surprisingly apt way for me to begin a review of “IronPython in Action,” a programming book by Michael J. Foord and Christian Muirhead.

“IronPython in Action” delves into the use of scripting (or dynamic) languages and how they merge with Microsoft’s enormous .Net platform.  For readers of this site, it shouldn’t be any secret that I have been working hard to teach myself Python.  And while that particular adventure is better documented elsewhere, “IronPython in Action” has been central to it.  Indeed, it has been my primary reference manual and guide.

It’s been nearly six months and it’s far past time to write a review of the guide.  But this review is going to be a little bit different than others that you might read.  If you are looking for a more traditional summary, you might be better served by Craig Murphy’s exhaustive breakdown.  Rather than detail the contents and render an opinion, I would like to first tell a story and then focus on a much narrower question: Is IronPython valuable for people who are new to Python or .Net programming?  More to the point, can it be used to teach a novice “how to fish?”

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Tags: Book Reviews,IronPython in Action,Michael Foord
Categories: Computer, IronPython, Programming
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