Professional IronPython

Interacting with the DLR
WHAT’S IN THIS CHAPTER?
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Getting your copy of the DLR
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Considering hosting APIs
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Employing extensions to the LINQ ExpressionTree
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Working with DynamicSite
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Understanding IDynamicObject
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Using the ActionBinder
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Considering the other DLR Features
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The Dynamic Language Runtime (DLR) is a new feature of the .NET platform. Its intended pur-
pose is to support dynamic languages, such as Python (through IronPython) and Ruby (through 
IronRuby). Without DLR, the .NET Framework can’t really run dynamic languages. In addition, 
DLR provides interoperability between dynamic languages, the .NET Framework, and static 
languages such as C# and Visual Basic.NET. Without DLR, dynamic and static languages can’t 
communicate (see the section “Understanding the Relationship between Dynamic and Static 
Languages” in Chapter 15 for additional details). In order to meet these goals, DLR must pro-
vide basic functionality that marshals data and code calls between the dynamic and static envi-
ronments. This functionality comes in a number of forms that are discussed in this chapter. You 
might be surprised to find that you’ve already used many of these features throughout the book. 
Here’s the list of features that DLR supports in order to accomplish its goals.
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Hosting Application Programming Interfaces (APIs): In order to run dynamic language 
scripts, the host language must have access to the scripting engine. The Hosting APIs 
provide the support needed to host the dynamic language within the host environment 
through the scripting engine. This marshaling of code and data makes it possible to 
seamlessly integrate static and dynamic languages.
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