Jython Essentials

Larger Cover

Jython Essentials

By Samuele Pedroni, Noel Rappin

Publisher: O'Reilly Media

Released: March 2002

Pages: 302

Jython is an implementation of the Python programming language written in 100% pure Java, so it runs under any compliant Java Virtual Machine. The secret to Jython's popularity lies in the combination of Java's librariesand tools with Python's rapid development capabilities. With Jython, you can write Python programs that integrate seamlessly with any Java code. And like Python, Jython can be used interactively, so you can get immediate results as you are programming.

Jython Essentials provides a solid introduction to the Python language, offering a brief but thorough tour of the Python concepts you'll need to understand to use Jython effectively. The book makes frequent comparisonsbetween Python and Java, with special emphasis on the different object-oriented semantics of the two languages, so Java programmers can quickly get up to speed with Jython.

Jython Essentials also covers the various ways in which Jython and Java can interact. For example, Jython code can create instances of pre-existing Java classes and call methods in those instances. You can write Jython classes that are direct subclasses of existing Java classesand use introspection to discern the capabilities of JavaBeans components. This book provides examples of using Jython with existing Java libraries, including the Swing GUI toolkit, the JDBC database API, the Servlet API, and various XML tools. And finally, the book shows howJython can be used as a scripting language within a Java program.

With Jython Essentials, you have everything you need to start creating applications that mix the best of Python's interactivity and Java's robust libraries.

Chapter 1 Introduction to Jython
1. Jython Requirements
2. Welcome to Jython
3. What’s Jython Good For?
4. The Benefits of Jython
5. The Speed Question
6. The Rest of the Book
Chapter 2 Jython Basics
1. Running Jython
2. Basic Types
3. Operators
4. Numeric Types
5. Sequences: Lists and Tuples
6. Strings
7. Mappings and Dictionaries
8. Jython Files
Chapter 3 Jython Control Flow
1. Statements and Expressions
2. Assignment
3. Printing
4. Blocks
5. Conditional Logic
6. Loops
7. List Comprehensions
8. Exceptions
9. Evaluating Code Dynamically
Chapter 4 Modules and Functions
1. Modules
2. Functions
3. Parameter Passing with Style
4. Import Statements and Packages
Chapter 5 Object-Oriented Jython
1. Creating Classes
2. Methods
3. Classes, Instances, and Access Control
4. Inheritance
5. Special Methods
Chapter 6 Using Java from Jython
1. Basic Object Usage
2. Automatic Type Conversion
3. Java Arrays and the jarray Module
4. Java-to-Python Types: Automatic Conversion
5. Collection Wrappers
6. Avoiding Name Collisions
Chapter 7 Inheriting from Java
1. Basic Mechanics
2. Java Interoperation and Overriding
3. Calling Super Methods and Constructors
Chapter 8 Reflection and JavaBeans
1. Bean-Based Reflection
2. Python-Based Reflection
Chapter 9 Using Swing
1. Java Versus Jython
2. A Calculator
3. An HTML Browser
4. An HTML Source Browser
Chapter 10 Using Java Libraries
1. JDBC and the Python Database API
2. Servlets and PyServlet
3. Jython and XML
Chapter 11 Jython Standard Library
1. Using Python Modules
2. System and File Modules
3. Regular Expressions
4. Serialization and Pickling
5. Unit Testing with PyUnit
Chapter 12 Embedding Jython Inside Java
1. Setting Up an Interpreter
2. Executing Code
3. Accessing the Interpreter Namespace
4. Using PyObjects
5. PyObject Subclasses
6. Catching Exceptions
7. Embedding Examples
Chapter 13 Compiling Jython
1. Why Compile?
2. The Compiler in Action
3. Packaging in Java Archives
4. Using Jython in Java
5. A Simple Applet

Appendix Installing Jython
Appendix Jython Options and Registry
1. Jython Options
2. Jython Compiler Options
3. The Jython Registry
Appendix Jython Exceptions
Appendix Jython and CPython Differences
1. Jython Extensions
2. Major Design Differences
3. Minor Design Differences
4. Differences Due to Java Details
5. Differences Due to Java Limitations
6. Minor Issues
7. Java Objects Versus Python Objects
Appendix Java-to-Python Quick Reference
1. Basic Data Types
2. Advanced Data Types
3. Logical Operators
4. Arithmetic Operators
5. Control Statements
6. Definition Statements
7. String Methods
8. List Methods
9. Dictionary Functions
Colophon

Title:

Jython Essentials

By:

Samuele Pedroni, Noel Rappin

Publisher:

O'Reilly Media

Formats:

Print
Ebook
Safari Books Online

Print:

March 2002

Ebook:

October 2010

Pages:

302

Print ISBN:

978-0-596-00247-3

| ISBN 10:

0-596-00247-5

Ebook ISBN:

978-1-4493-9724-1

| ISBN 10:

1-4493-9724-7

Samuele Pedroni

Samuele Pedroni is one of the main Jython developers. He holds a CS flavored diploma in mathematics from the ETH Zurich (Swiss institute of technology in Zurich). He is now a teacher and research assistant at the Institute of Theoretical CS. He plans to come to the US for a PhD in the field of dynamic languages and dynamic compilation. He came to Jython with the interest in improving it with respect to Java importing and reloading. He has developed several important patches related to java integration, classloaders, and the reworking of java/python importing rules and design.

View Samuele Pedroni's full profile page.
Noel Rappin

Noel Rappin has a Ph.D. in computer science from the Georgia Institute of Technology, where his research included methods for teaching Object-Oriented Programming and Design. He has extensive production experience in both Java and Python. Noel also contributed an introductory chapter to the book Squeak: Open Personal Computing and Multimedia (PH).

View Noel Rappin's full profile page.

Colophon

Our look is the result of reader comments, our own experimentation, and feedback from distribution channels. Distinctive covers complement our distinctive approach to technical topics, breathing personality and life into potentially dry subjects. The animal on the cover of Jython Essentials is a bank vole. Voles are small rodents related to lemmings. Different species can be found all over the world, though the bank vole is specific to Europe and Asia.

Voles range in length from 3.5 to 7 inches. They have rounded bodies with gray or brown fur and beige undersides. Bank voles have blunt muzzles, small eyes and ears, and short tails. They feed on buds, leaves, fruit, and some insects. Most bank voles live in the woods, making their nests under logs, in tree roots, or underground. Other vole species burrow underground in extensive tunneling systems, rarely coming above ground.

Voles live up to 18 months, though this time is often cut short, as other animals frequently prey upon them. Linley Dolby was the production editor and proofreader, and Audrey Dole was the copyeditor for Jython Essentials. Sarah Sherman, Darren Kelly, and Claire Cloutier provided quality control. Tom Dinse wrote the index.

Emma Colby designed the cover of this book, based on a series design by Edie Freedman. The cover image is 19-century engraving from the Dover Pictorial Archive. Emma Colby produced the cover layout with QuarkXPress 4.1, using Adobe's ITC Garamond font.

Melanie Wang designed the interior layout, based on a series design by David Futato. Mihaela Maier converted the files from Microsoft Word to FrameMaker 5.5.6 using tools created by Mike Sierra. The text font is LInotype Birka; the heading font is Adobe Myriad Condensed; the code font is LucasFont's TheSans Mono Condensed. The illustrations that appear in the book were produced by Robert Romano and Jessamyn Read using Macromedia FreeHand 9 and Adobe Photoshop 6. The tip and warning icons were drawn by Christopher Bing. This colophon was written by Linley Dolby.

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oreilly Jython Essentials

3.6

(based on 5 reviews)

REVIEWS

Reviewed by 5 customers

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Displaying reviews 1-5

8/23/2010

(1 of 1 customers found this review helpful)

4.0

great book but needs second edition!

By rabbits77

from Boston, MA

About Me Developer, Sys Admin

Pros

Accurate
Concise
Easy to understand
Helpful examples
Well-written

Cons

Best Uses

Expert
Intermediate
Novice
Student

Comments about oreilly Jython Essentials:

This is a great concise guide to jython and I have frequently used it as a core python language reference also. That said, 8 years is a long time and I would definitely encourage O'Reilly to put together a second edition!

7/31/2006

(0 of 3 customers found this review helpful)

3.0

A little confusion by Anonymous Reader

By Anonymous

from Undisclosed

Comments about oreilly Jython Essentials:

A correct code would be:

import Y

y = Y.Y()

not

Import Y

y = Y()

7/30/2004

(0 of 1 customers found this review helpful)

2.0

More examples please

By Anonymous

from Undisclosed

Comments about oreilly Jython Essentials:

I thought overall it was well laid out and covered most of the points, but thought it would have been far better if there had been more examples included, and any gotchas.

For example:

Putting the following into Y.py

class Y:

def __init__(self):

print "foo"

then in the console doing:

import Y

y = Y()

gives the following error:

Traceback (innermost last):

File "", line 1, in ?

TypeError: call of non-function (module 'Y')

but it works ok if you type the class definition into the console.

This sort of problem could have been gone into in the book - there are other examples.

The book assumes that one knows exactly how to do things in python, and that everything will work just fine 1st time

11/24/2003

(2 of 2 customers found this review helpful)

5.0

Jython Essentials Review

By Orlin Melstrand

from Undisclosed

Comments about oreilly Jython Essentials:

This book is similar to the other O'Reilly books that have become popular for their conciseness and content--no fluff here. This is the type of book most useful to someone who wants or needs to concentrate on the subject and learn the technology. (It is not a classroom textbook, with exercises, tests, and so forth, though it does have short examples, which are better for learning than long ones, in my opinion.) The book will probably be most accessible to readers who are familiar with core Java. Familiarity with Python would be helpful, but should not be necessary--a three-chapter introduction to Python is included. It should be of interest to Java and Python programmers, and others interested in scripting applications.

Appendices are included on Jython installation, and comparisons between Jython and Python and between Jython and Java. A nice little surprise is a section on the use of PyUnit, the Python counterpart to JUnit, for unit testing, which also includes a discussion on compiling Jython.

The authors explain how to use Java from Jython, including type conversions, and how to subclass Java classes from Jython code. One chapter is devoted to a discussion of Java reflection and working with JavaBeans, and the use of Python reflection. Another includes examples illustrating how to construct an HTML browser and an HTML source browser, using Swing.

Another chapter includes a short discussion on each of JDBC (actually zxJDBC, the Python version), servlets, and parsing XML, with illustrative examples. The parsing examples use SAX, DOM, and JDOM, respectively; the zxJDBC example uses MySQL. The book also includes a brief discussion

of regular expressions, with a couple of short examples.

Finally, there is a chapter explaining how to use Jython from Java, which allows the embedding of a Jython interpreter in a Java program.

Notes: Examples run on Jython 2.0 or higher and jdk1.2 or higher.

The book has a web site with code samples for download, and errata.

4/23/2002

4.0

Jython Essentials Review

By Scott Shattuck

from Undisclosed

Comments about oreilly Jython Essentials:

Overall a very good effort, particularly if you're looking to understand some of the nitty gritty details of Jython. The major missing element however is any coverage of threading/synchronization. Java programming often relies heavily on threading and there is no coverage of how to do it in Jython in this book.

I'd suggest this as a companion guide to New Riders' "Jython For Java Programmers". Each is an excellent book and they complement each other well. Between the breadth of coverage in the NR title and the depth of detail in Jython Essentials you should be outcoding straight Java programmers in no time ;).

Displaying reviews 1-5

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Chapter 1 Introduction to Jython

Jython Requirements

Welcome to Jython

What’s Jython Good For?

The Benefits of Jython

The Speed Question

The Rest of the Book

Chapter 2 Jython Basics

Running Jython

Basic Types

Operators

Numeric Types

Sequences: Lists and Tuples

Strings

Mappings and Dictionaries

Jython Files

Chapter 3 Jython Control Flow

Statements and Expressions

Assignment

Printing

Blocks

Conditional Logic

Loops

List Comprehensions

Exceptions

Evaluating Code Dynamically

Chapter 4 Modules and Functions

Modules

Functions

Parameter Passing with Style

Import Statements and Packages

Chapter 5 Object-Oriented Jython

Creating Classes

Methods

Classes, Instances, and Access Control

Inheritance

Special Methods

Chapter 6 Using Java from Jython

Basic Object Usage

Automatic Type Conversion

Java Arrays and the jarray Module

Java-to-Python Types: Automatic Conversion

Collection Wrappers

Avoiding Name Collisions

Chapter 7 Inheriting from Java

Basic Mechanics

Java Interoperation and Overriding

Calling Super Methods and Constructors

Chapter 8 Reflection and JavaBeans

Bean-Based Reflection

Python-Based Reflection

Chapter 9 Using Swing

Java Versus Jython

A Calculator

An HTML Browser

An HTML Source Browser

Chapter 10 Using Java Libraries

JDBC and the Python Database API

Servlets and PyServlet

Jython and XML

Chapter 11 Jython Standard Library

Using Python Modules

System and File Modules

Regular Expressions

Serialization and Pickling

Unit Testing with PyUnit

Chapter 12 Embedding Jython Inside Java

Setting Up an Interpreter

Executing Code

Accessing the Interpreter Namespace

Using PyObjects

PyObject Subclasses

Catching Exceptions

Embedding Examples

Chapter 13 Compiling Jython

Why Compile?

The Compiler in Action

Packaging in Java Archives

Using Jython in Java

A Simple Applet