Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Jython 2.2 Beta 1 Released!

The Phoenix Is Rising!

After being considered dead for many years, Jython is back in business with the beta 1 release of Jython 2.2. It's been teetering on the edge of 2.2 compatibility for a long time, but over the past several months the core team and several contributors have rounded off the edges, to the point that a beta release of the long-awaited 2.2 version is now available.

For all you Pythonistas, this should mean two things:

- You have a project for the day. Go get Jython 2.2, try it out with your Python 2.2-compatible apps and libraries, and report any issues you find.
- Start contributing your time, either helping with the Java coding, helping to debug Python apps and libraries, or help on efforts to write C-based libraries in Python.

I will also remind you that a large percentage of JRuby's success is due entirely to its community. Can you really get up in the morning and look at yourself in the mirror without knowing you've helped Jython get back up to speed? Can you?

4 comments:

  1. Thanks to you and your team for all your work - this is a really important project. I really wish one of the major Java players would really get behind it.

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  2. Well, to clarify, I don't actually work on the Jython project. My hands are pretty full with JRuby. But I'd like to see Python-interested resources give Jython a go and help them pick up the pace, so the JVM dynlang story is well-rounded.

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  3. Great news - BEA WebLogic relies on Jython for its scripting framework (WLST) and as a result of Jython. WSLT is a very powerful and essential tool for WebLogic administration. See: http://edocs.bea.com/wls/docs92/config_scripting/using_WLST.html

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  4. With the adoption of JRuby by Sun, I don't see a future for Jython. JRuby isn't a reasonable migration path for us (Ruby is a nice language, but it doesn't have the libraries and tools we need). Overall, this means that we're doing much less JVM-based work now than we used to.

    The only way Jython is going to "pick up the pace" is if Sun starts sponsoring the project.

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