[Edu-sig] JPython and CP4E

[Guido van Rossum]

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

[Arthur]
> 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.

Whoa, Arthur!  We're just getting back in the swing of it.  We're
quietly (with the help of Finn Bock!) working on a new release of
JPython, which will include all of Finn's errata, and support all the
new syntax of Python 2.0.

> 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.

I don't know that movie, but I can guess.  We plan to do something
about the website too.

> 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.

There are some issues here that I cannot comment on, but I should
mention that we are taking measures to ensure that CNRI's tardiness
won't hold up our release.

> >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] ).

Will all be there.

> 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.

More is in the pipeline!

--Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/)