Ask Frank!

Welcome to the Ask Frank question form for July 2008!

I've been in touch with [http://fwierzbicki.blogspot.com/ Frank Wierzbicki] of Sun Microsystems. In case you aren't aware, Frank is one of the top Jython developers, and [http://fwierzbicki.blogspot.com/2008/02/jythons-future-looking-sunny.html earlier this year] Sun Microsystems hired him to work on Jython full time!

He has agreed to answer questions from the community for our July 2008 newsletter. Gather your best questions and post them here for Frank. If you have issues posting the questions to this wiki page, then please send them to me at juneau001@gmail.com so that they can be included. The deadline for posting questions is July 11th. After that time, Frank Wierzbicki will choose which ones he wishes to answer and we will include them in the next distribution.

Please post your questions to Ask Frank below or email them to me at juneau001@gmail.com . Please include your name and email address if you wish.

Thanks in advance for your participation...this is a great opportunity for the Jython community. Special thanks to Frank Wierzbicki for his time!

Josh Juneau

[http://www.gathereventplanning.com Gather Event Planning] juneau001@gmail.com

Questions for Frank

I'll start it off with the question we all want to ask:

1) You've been with Sun for just over three months now, how is Jython development at Sun been going so far?

2) To me it seems from the Python side, Jython is considered irrelevant. Is there any effort to get Jython more into a cooperative effort with Python development? (marvin greenberg, public dot marvin on gmail dot com)


3) Building on question 2, IDE/Editor support, there is a fair amount of Python support in IDE's but with the exception of Eclipse with PyDev is there any true Jython support (ie Python with Java )

4) A while back there was talk about scripting languages being able share object at the JVM level, for example, Jython using JRuby objects. Is there any news in that regard?

5) With you working at Sun now, obviously they have gained in stature but where does Sun see JVM based scripting languages, like Jython fitting into the over all picture with future JVM and Java versions.

5.5) (not related to q5, just days later :) ) Would the results of Java profiling tools like findbugs, Jprofiler or myKit be helpful or more importantly useful to you or one of the members of the development team?

Thanks Frank and Josh.BR Greg.


6) In which type of applications or which type of uses is Jython more fit / successful?

7) When do you think jython will reach 3.0. What are the most difficult things to implement in going from python 2.5 to 3.0?

8) Which part of jython are you working more? Why?

9) Sun as some developers working in JRuby and now you are working in Jython. Do you work together in some type of "open source java dynamic languages" lab or is your work uncoordinated?

10) Have you heard of Fortress? From a language point of view what do you consider more revolutionary in it? AFAIK it has currently only an interpreter and being so it is kinda-dynamic. Do you think we'll have a JFortress?

Thanks in advance,

Luis Sergio Oliveira


11) On the current jython website, the roadmap says that the current codebase of Jython 2.2 "is extremely brittle". Is it possible for you to walk us through some of the (major) refactoring that have been done to the codebase of Jython 2.5?

12) Is it possible to do optional static type declaration in Jython? It will not be compliant to CPython, but I would like to know if it is at least technically feasible since Jython is running on JVM.

Thanks,

Anthony Kong


13) What would be the first steps for someone that wants to help with developing Jython itself? Where to start? Are there lightweight tasks? Which skills are really needed? Etc.

thx, Berco Beute


Thanks, Allan Davis


Sorry, more questions...

15) What is your take on GIL given your experience with Jython development? Is GIL, in CPython world, a bottleneck to performance? (There are already a lot of discussions around this topic. It is hard to tell which is fact, opinion or just myth. I'd like to see if u may provide a different angle to this topic)

16) Do you have any kind of possible arrangement of tests/benchmark in mind such that, by comparing cpython and jython, we can find out the performance gain that is a result of removal of GIL?

Cheers, Anthony


17) I'm a non-Java programmer who's into Jython programming. It seems that Jython is geared more towards the Java developers; for example, creating stand-alone jar applications is only practical if you already know Java. Are there any attempts to "not alienate" (for lack of a better term) people like me? I'm sure Jython would love to have a much wider audience.