[Edu-sig] JPython and CP4E

[Arthur Siegel]

Kirby wrote:
>Is your sense that the JPython community is actively moving ahead,
>or is it on a steady-state plateau?

I'm afraid that's another touchy one with me.  Suffice it to say that
JPython would be essentially finished, IMO, were it not for the work of one
superuser in the community - Finn Bock.  More below. Other than Finn it is a
story without heroes, IMO.  PythonLabs seems to take the position that the
CNRI trademark, copyright, license control prevents them from moving forward
with JPython, though they very much want to.

Unfortunately that doesn't fully explain the neglect of JPython during the
last six months of the tenure of the PythonLabs guys at CNRI.

I saw Hitchcock's Rebecca last night. For those who understand the reference
I see a close analogy between Rebecca's room a year after her death, and the
JPython.org site a year after Jim Huginin's departure from CNRI.

Hopefully the denouement is upon us.  Recent statements by BeOpen seem to be
a commitment to attend to JPython, one way or another, as first priority
after the release of Python2.0 final.

For my part, I have recently sent a note to Dr. Kahn of CNRI pleading for
some action that would realistically provide for JPython's future. If CNRI
wants to control JPython to let it die, it seems a sad and spiteful thing to
do. My note to Dr. Kahn was my best effort at diplomacy on the issue -
though any impact is doubtful.

>E.g. where are we with being able to use Python 2.0 features (e.g. zip
>(sequence,sequence and [f(x) for x in sequence] ).

Finn Bock maintains a site at sourceforge on which he releases "errata".
Up to errata8, the releases were essentially bug fixes to JPython1.1
"final" - another Kremlin watcher issue, the release of JPython1.1beta as
final.

Finn's errata9 adds Python2.0 compatibility features. I haven't used it and
can't answer specifcs, however.

ART