Jython 2.2, the first major overhaul of the Jython dynamic scripting language in 4 years, has been released. Jython 2.2 implements the internal architecture of Python 2.2 and includes numerous features from Python 2.3. The new release includes many major changes:

• new-style classes
• Java Collections integration
• PEP 302 implementation
• iterators
• generators
• __future__ division
• support for running on JDK1.5 and 1.6
• new installer
• a significant number of features to bring Jython in line with CPython

The Jython download is at: http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=12867 The Jython community meets at: http://www.jython.org

...new installer

Just a note, unless they've changed something big, you can use Jython without running any install. You just need to extract the jar. Generally, you'll want the libraries too but it will work without them. I've been able to use Jython (and therefore Python) in an 'odd' environment because this is the case.

Well done. Jython is catching up again. Nice to see things accelerating.

No, we did'n't change big things, installer-wise. Nonetheless, I'd recommend to start the installer, even if you 'only' need the jython.jar file. The shortest way for this is: java -jar jython_installer-2.2.jar -s -d /usr/lib/jython22 This will install a single jython.jar file in /usr/lib/jython22, ready for standalone usage, and for embedding in any java application. If in doubt about the installer options, type java -jar jython_installer-2.2.jar --help Hope to have clarified a bit, Oti.

Congratualations to the Jython development team. I cannot wait to use the new feature set! -satya

I wonder if they have enough of the 2.3 feature set to run Django. Granted there could be other side libraries that would hold things up but it would be cool.

Seeing Django run on Jython would be cool. I don't know of anyone that has tried. Jim Baker wrote the following today on the jython-dev email list. It gives insite into what may happen to implement CPython bytecode compatibility: I've been evaluating Tobias Ivarsson's work as his mentor, and it's looking very good. Basically we have almost of all CPython 2.5 bytecode (PBC) compiling to Java bytecode using ASM! This is not just interesting for the possible case of importing pyc's, which can potentially have other difficulties. Because PBC is at a pretty high level (see http://docs.python.org/lib/bytecodes.html) it should not be difficult at all to use this work with respect to visiting a new 2.5 AST, when that becomes stable enough. This is because the compilation leverages existing Jython core (PyFrame, PyException, etc.), with only relatively minor changes required. Using ASM should soon bring some other functionality. In particular, I'm interested in how we can leverage it to provide annotations via a simple decorator interface. There should be some code demonstrating this pretty soon. Additionally, the PyASM work can compile itself (bootstrap), which is always a nice test, perhaps the classical test. (It's not quite of course, because PyASM has to only implement a subset of functionality, it can rely on existing Jython substantially, and I haven't really looked at how 2.5 it is.) Having said that, don't expect Jython 2.5 alpha to be released too soon! At this point, we are still very much in the phase of everything barely working. And there are bugs. And the testing needs to be greatly expanded. Etc. In addition, the new compiler is only one part of 2.5. But all in all, it's a great piece of work that Tobias should be quite proud of. Congratulations for a job well done! :)

This is very good news. I can't wait to check it out. So... is it premature to ask about a schedule for 2.4 or 2.5 implementations? -John Mark http://www.hyperic.com/

We announced today support for Jython 2.2 in PushToTest TestMaker, the open-source service governance and test automation platform. PushToTest will issue TestMaker 5.0.1 to update to Jython 2.2. In our labs we found Jython 2.2 to be stable and faster than 2.1. We've been wanting Jython 2.2 for years. It is terrific that Jython 2.2 is here. -Frank Cohen http://www.pushtotest.com