Python 2.0

[Sam Schulenburg]

In article <7ik6mi$lbk$1 at cronkite.cc.uga.edu>,
  graham at sloth.math.uga.edu (Graham Matthews) wrote:
> I read the following interesting snippet at
>
> 	http://www.python.org/workshops/1997-10/proceedings/hugunin.html
>
> >6.2. Python in Java's Advantages
> >
> >Using Java as the underlying systems language for Python has a
number of
> >advantages over the current implementation of Python in C.  First
and
> >foremost of these in my mind is the opportunity to ride the Java
> >popularity wave and let Python code run everywhere there's a Java
VM.
> >It also makes the rich set of portable Java API's available from
within
> >Python.
> >
> >There is also a nice collection of technical reasons why Java is a
> >superior implementation language for Python than C.  These include
> >Java's binary portability, thread-safety, object-orientation, true
> >exceptions, garbage collection, and friendliness to glue languages.
> >More questions need to be answered before I can make a convincing
> >argument that Python 2.0 should be implemented in Java rather than
C.
> >Nonetheless, I think that Java offers many advantages for Python as
> >both an implementation language and a widely available run-time
platform.
>
> What particular intrigues me here is the sentence
>
> >More questions need to be answered before I can make a convincing
> >argument that Python 2.0 should be implemented in Java rather than
C.
>
> I was wondering if this is seriously being considered -- that is
> implementing Python 2.0 in Java rather than C. While I understand
> that there are some technical challenges with this (notably
interfacing
> to the existing C implemented extensions), I personally think there
> is a lot to be said for compiling Python to the JVM. For example:
> access to the Java apis, garbage collection, true compilation, the
> ability to write statically typed code (just write that part in
Java!),
> access to Swing, promoting Python on the coat-tails of Java (free
> publicity and hype), etc.
>
> Comments?
>
> graham
>
> --
>         Thanks for the trouble you took from her eyes
>               I thought it was there for good
>                  So I never really tried
>




The only problem I see with a java implimentation of python, would be
the java security process. It is my understanding that the java sandbox
would prevent embeded programs from accessing low level hardware
functions. I presently use python-c to access the hardware abstraction
layer of both windowsNT and windows95/98. This would not be posible
under java.

Sam Schulenburg


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