[ANN] Pyjamas 0.6pre2 Python Web Widget Set and Javascript Compiler

[Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton]

http://pyjs.org

this is a pre-release announcement, 0.6pre2, of the pyjamas widget set
and python-to-javascript compiler.  there are over 110 entries in the
CHANGELOG since the last stable release, 0.5p1, and so it was deemed
sensible to invite people to test this version before its next stable
release, 0.6.

pyjamas, being a port of GWT to python, comprises four main components:
* a stand-alone python-to-javascript compiler
* a desktop-based wrapper around python-xpcom or pywebkitgtk
* a browser "DOM" model wrapper interface
* a widget set similar to pygtk2 / pyqt4, based on DOM manipulation

significantly in the 0.6 series, pyjamas-desktop has been incorporated
into the build: "python Hello.py" will start a stand-alone app (just
as you would with pygtk2 or pyqt4) and "pyjsbuild Hello" will compile
the javascript version(s).

the combination means that pyjamas can run python applications -
unmodified - in all major web browsers, or on the desktop (using gecko
or webkit) in a similar fashion to adobe AIR.

in the javascript version: somewhere along the line, a massive
performance hit was introduced by accident. this has now been fixed.
however, random desperate attempts to improve performance, before the
mistake was corrected, mean that the pyjamas 0.6pre2
python-to-javascript compiler produces code that is stunningly quick.

also in the 0.6pre2 release, "strict" python options have now been
introduced, so that developers can expect much more support for the
standard python 2.5 / 2.6 language semantics.  the "-O" option
disables many of these features, bringing a quite significant speed
increase, by sacrificing python compatibility.  that's just the way it
has to be.

downloads can be found by following the links from http://pyjs.org -
sourceforge, code.google.com, pypi, all the usual places.

lastly - thank you to everyone who's helped with pyjamas: bernd,
bernd, jurgen, christian, kees, ondrej and many more, and especially
thank you to the people who helped out by pointing out bugs in the
0.6pre1 release, please keep it up!

l.