This may seem like it's coming out of left field for a minute, but
bear with me.
There is no doubt that Ruby's success is a concern for anyone who
sees it as diminishing Python's status. One of the reasons for
Ruby's success is certainly the notion (originally advocated by Bruce
Tate, if I'm not mistaken) that it is the "next Java" -- the language
and environment that mainstream Java developers are, or will, look to
as a natural next step.
One thing that would help Python in this "debate" (or, perhaps simply
put it in the running, at least as a "next Java" candidate) would be
if Python had an easier migration path for Java developers that
currently rely upon various third-party libraries. The wealth of
third-party libraries available for Java has always been one of its
great strengths. Ergo, if Python had an easy-to-use, recommended way
to use those libraries within the Python environment, that would be a
significant advantage to present to Java developers and those who
would choose Ruby over Java. Platform compatibility is always a huge
motivator for those looking to migrate or upgrade.
In that vein, I would point to JPype (http://jpype.sourceforge.net).
JPype is a module that gives "python programs full access to java
class libraries". My suggestion would be to either:
(a) include JPype in the standard library, or barring that,
(b) make a very strong push to support JPype
(a) might be difficult or cumbersome technically, as JPype does need
to build against Java headers, which may or may not be possible given
the way that Python is distributed, etc.
However, (b) is very feasible. I can't really say what "supporting
JPype" means exactly -- maybe GvR and/or other heavyweights in the
Python community make public statements regarding its existence and
functionality, maybe JPype gets a strong mention or placement on
python.org....a ll those details are obviously not up to me, and I
don't know the workings of the "official" Python organizations enough
to make serious suggestions.
Regardless of the form of support, I think raising people's awareness
of JPype and what it adds to the Python environment would be a Good
Thing (tm).
For our part, we've used JPype to make PDFTextStream (our previously
Java-only PDF text extraction library) available and supported for
Python. You can read some about it here:
And I've blogged about how PDFTextStream.P ython came about, and how
we worked with Steve Ménard, the maintainer of JPype, to make it all
happen (watch out for this URL wrapping):
sourcecommercia l
Cheers,
Chas Emerick
Founder, Snowtide Informatics Systems
Enterprise-class PDF content extraction
cemerick@snowti de.com
http://snowtide.com | +1 413.519.6365
bear with me.
There is no doubt that Ruby's success is a concern for anyone who
sees it as diminishing Python's status. One of the reasons for
Ruby's success is certainly the notion (originally advocated by Bruce
Tate, if I'm not mistaken) that it is the "next Java" -- the language
and environment that mainstream Java developers are, or will, look to
as a natural next step.
One thing that would help Python in this "debate" (or, perhaps simply
put it in the running, at least as a "next Java" candidate) would be
if Python had an easier migration path for Java developers that
currently rely upon various third-party libraries. The wealth of
third-party libraries available for Java has always been one of its
great strengths. Ergo, if Python had an easy-to-use, recommended way
to use those libraries within the Python environment, that would be a
significant advantage to present to Java developers and those who
would choose Ruby over Java. Platform compatibility is always a huge
motivator for those looking to migrate or upgrade.
In that vein, I would point to JPype (http://jpype.sourceforge.net).
JPype is a module that gives "python programs full access to java
class libraries". My suggestion would be to either:
(a) include JPype in the standard library, or barring that,
(b) make a very strong push to support JPype
(a) might be difficult or cumbersome technically, as JPype does need
to build against Java headers, which may or may not be possible given
the way that Python is distributed, etc.
However, (b) is very feasible. I can't really say what "supporting
JPype" means exactly -- maybe GvR and/or other heavyweights in the
Python community make public statements regarding its existence and
functionality, maybe JPype gets a strong mention or placement on
python.org....a ll those details are obviously not up to me, and I
don't know the workings of the "official" Python organizations enough
to make serious suggestions.
Regardless of the form of support, I think raising people's awareness
of JPype and what it adds to the Python environment would be a Good
Thing (tm).
For our part, we've used JPype to make PDFTextStream (our previously
Java-only PDF text extraction library) available and supported for
Python. You can read some about it here:
And I've blogged about how PDFTextStream.P ython came about, and how
we worked with Steve Ménard, the maintainer of JPype, to make it all
happen (watch out for this URL wrapping):
sourcecommercia l
Cheers,
Chas Emerick
Founder, Snowtide Informatics Systems
Enterprise-class PDF content extraction
cemerick@snowti de.com
http://snowtide.com | +1 413.519.6365
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