How about Python + Mozilla for large apps?

Tue Apr 8 18:05:19 EDT 2003

Is there any project aimed to embed the Python interpreter inside 
Mozilla OR to make available the XUL/XBL GUI engine of Mozilla to the Python 
interpreter OR to create a full-capability bridge between Mozilla and Python 
(maybe via XPCOM)?

I'm thinking that coupling the sophisticated UI features of Mozilla (XUL+XBL) 
to a powerful interpreter like Python (or Java, Ruby, etc...) would allow the 
development of full-blown, well-engineered, cross-platform applications: 
unlimited access to a lot of different RDBMS, unlimited access to the hosting 
platform (Windows, MacOS, and Linux/Unix) and all of its services, unlimited 
access to a lot of different plug-ins (PyNum, PyGame, py*) and so on.

It seems that this idea was somehow already presented by Ian Oescher in this 
article: http://www.mozilla.org/docs/xul/xulnotes/xulnote_oven.html
But I'm unable to find any more information on this topic.

Thanks for your attention.

BTW: As long as I can understand PyXPCOM is not what I'm looking for. It is a 
way to create XPCOM components in Python and use them in Mozilla. Instead, 
I'm looking for a (simple) way to have access to the _whole_ Python 
interpreter from within a Mozilla javascript OR to have access to the whole 
XUL/XBL technology of Mozilla from within a Python script (like it was 
WxPython). Probably I'm wrong, given that ActiveState created Komodo with 
PyXPCOM, but... I have this feeling.

The nsIProcess or nsILocalFile interfaces of Mozilla could probably do this 
job by invoking the interpreter but how about setting/getting parameters, 
communicating with the running interpreter and using a single copy of the 
interpreter for many different task? I'm rather thinking to something like 
mod_python for Apache.

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Alessandro Bottoni