You should have a good understanding of why you want to use IronPython and how it differs from other, static .NET languages. Dynamic languages have a special place in your toolbox. They aren’t the answer to every need, but they can address specific needs — just as other languages address the needs for which they were built. At the end of the day, the computer doesn’t care what language you use — the computer simply cares how that language is translated into the bits and bytes it requires to do something useful. Languages address human needs and it’s important to keep that in mind.
Before you do anything else, make sure you get IronPython installed on your system and test the installation out using the examples in this chapter. If you’re getting some weird result or nothing at all, you might have a bad installation.
At this point, you really don’t know too much about the Python language or the IronPython implementation of that language. However, you probably do know something about other .NET languages, and that’s a good starting point.