IronPython is a new implementation of the Python language targeting the Common Language Runtime (CLR). It compiles python programs into bytecode (IL) that will run on either Microsoft's .NET or the Open Source Mono platform. IronPython includes an interactive interpreter and transparent on-the-fly compilation of source files just like standard Python. In addition, IronPython supports static compilation of Python code to produce static executables (.exe's) that can be run directly or static libraries (.dll's) that can be called from other CLR languages.

Pippy is a port of (a subset of) Python to the PalmOS. With Pippy, Python programmers can create custom applications to run on Palm devices, as well as use Pippy as an interactive environment directly on the Palm. David evaluates the strengths and limitations of Pippy as a means of implementing Palm applications.Let me introduce Pippy in the style of a good news/bad news joke. The good news about Pippy is that it allows a Python programmer to write and run programs right on the Palm. Moreover, with version 0.7, Pippy has gotten faster, more stable, and easier to use. The bad news is that, so far, Pippy is still fairly "bleeding edge" software, and a lot of the things programmers want in a development environment are planned for later versions, not available today. Still, Pippy gives you enough to play with now, and enables you to do some useful things without too much effort.

This article introduces the idea of importing Python modules that manage many common and/or special tasks that you would otherwise have to write programming code for. IDLE is featured in this article because of some of its handy features, but you can follow the examples in other ways as well. The material in this article directly supplements the official Python Tutorial, and pretty much assumes you have at least skimmed over it or gotten the same information elsewhere. This article is intended to help you "get busy coding" right away and show you a few essential tricks.

SPE is a free Python IDE with Blender, Kiki, PyChecker, Remote Debugger, Uml, and wxGlade support.