Python-based browser plugins?

[Stuart D. Gathman]

On Wed, 30 Oct 2002 21:44:39 -0500, Terry Hancock wrote:

>  It seems there is, for example, no end-to-end free-software way
> to run a Java2 applet.

Yes, but at least Java 2 is still an open specification.  Open source
implementations are just getting Java 1.1 down pat, and have a long ways
to go for Java 2.  The open spec seems a reasonable way to provide revenue
for Sun, while allowing fully compatible open source implementations (no
hidden APIs like with Microsoft).  It would be nice if Sun open sourced
their old stuff (like Java 1.1) also, but OSS Java 1.1 is already pretty
good.

> Unfortunately, the Java developer community seems to be very enamoured
> of Java2, and components built on it, such as Swing, seem to be an
> important part of any of the apps I would've considered using.

I can't use Java 2 yet because we still have machines in the field with no
Java 2 JVM available!  Even if java 2 were available everywhere, swing is
too big and slow.  I go with AWT - and am looking at IBM's new extended
AWT like (uses native components) GUI kit.

> Several people have posted in this group on the feasibility of replacing
> Java with Python, and my post resolves to another such question: is
> there any way I could distribute applets/plugins implemented in Python
> (I probably mean ordinary "C Python" here), such that the user will have
> a similarly transparent experience? (The other option of using
> Java1-only, I'll ask on the Jython list, I suppose).

Jython works with Java 1.1 - that's what I have to use on the old
systems!  I haven't tested with an Open Source JDK1.1 - I use IBM's JVM
for AIX 4.1.5.  Very likely, Jython will work fine with the OSS Java 1
JVMs.  It won't *compile* with Java 1 - but you can use Jikes + Java 2
libraries to compile jython.  (It adapts dynamically to missing
functionality by trapping execeptions at runtime.)

(A first step to OSS Java 2 would be "stubbed" libraries which can be
compiled against, and the resulting code run on a Java 2 system.)

-- 
	      Stuart D. Gathman <stuart at bmsi.com>
Business Management Systems Inc.  Phone: 703 591-0911 Fax: 703 591-6154
"Confutatis maledictis, flamis acribus addictis" - background song for
a Microsoft sponsored "Where do you want to go from here?" commercial.