Choosing between two Jython books...

[Alan Kennedy]

Marc Rochkind wrote:

> I'm a very experienced programmer who knows both Python and Java, and I
> thought I'd buy just one book on Jython, which sounds like something I'd
> like to use.

Hi Marc,

Are you the Marc Rochkind who wrote "Advanced Unix Programming"? That was our
course book for a "Systems Programming" course, when I was taking my Comp Sci
degree back in the '80s. That was a great book, clear, concise and highly
informative.

> Which should I get: [of two jython books]

I have both books. They were both inexpensive.

>         Jython Essentials (Pedroni & Rappin)

I think that this is the more technical of the two books, since it is written by
two people who regularly work on Jython internals. I found it extremely
effective as a reference book, i.e. it contains all of the details that you need
to design and implement jython/java systems.

>         Jython for Java Programmers (Bill & Bill)

And this one takes more of a tutorial approach, albeit at a reasonably advanced
level: the target audience is java programmers, so a fair degree of java and
general programming knowledge is assumed. 

They both have pretty extensive coverage of jython and how it relates to Java,
but I think that "Essentials" has the edge in terms of completeness of technical
details and in terms of being authoritative.

> I'm mainly interested in completeness and rigor... don't need a tutorial
> approach.

If those were my criteria, I would definitely pick "Jython Essentials".

But the thing that *really* taught me about jython and jython/java integration
was using jython to embed a scripting engine inside one of my java applications.
Nothing like a real world tryout.

Best wishes, and welcome to comp.lang.python.

-- 
alan kennedy
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