Professional IronPython

USINg VISUAl STUdIo To CREATE IRoNPyTHoN APPlICATIoNS
You might have looked at the New Project dialog box after you installed IronPython, assuming 
that you’d find a series of new project templates. Unfortunately, you won’t find any new templates 
for IronPython. The current version of the product doesn’t include anything you can use directly. 
Fortunately, you can still create a project for IronPython projects and use Visual Studio to edit and 
debug it. The following sections take you through a simple configuration scenario and then show 
the resulting project in action.
Creating the Project
Before you do anything else, you must create a project to hold your IronPython application. The 
following steps show you how to perform this task.
1.
Open Visual Studio, but don’t open any project or template files.
2.
Choose File 
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Open 
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Project/Solution. You’ll see the Open Project dialog box shown in 
Figure 2-1.
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Using Visual Studio to Create IronPython Applications
 
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FIgURE 2-1: 
Use the Open Project dialog box to start the project.
3.
Locate and highlight IPY.EXE (normally found in the \Program 
Files\IronPython 2.6 folder). Click Open. Visual Studio creates a 
solution based on IPY.EXE, as shown in Figure 2-2. You must still 
configure this solution.
4.
Right-click IPY in Solution Explorer and choose Properties from 
the context menu. You’ll see the General tab of the Properties page 
shown in Figure 2-3. (Your display may differ slightly from the one 
shown in Figure 2-3 based on your machine configuration and the 
Visual Studio 2010 edition you use.) At a minimum, you must change 
the Arguments and Working Directory fields to match your project.