Customer Reviews

The Definitive Guide to Jython

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The authors describe this book as having the intended audience of a Java developer wishing to use a dynamic language other than Groovy or JRuby. This is a very accurate assessment.

The first section serves as a quick introduction to the Python language, however should not be completely skipped even by seasoned Python developers. As a Python and Java developer, it was good to see comparisons of similar features from both languages. In many cases, the authors took the time to show code examples from both languages, side by side.

The book then leads into practical application of Jython. In addition to sections on how to call Java code from within your Jython scripts, extremely detailed instructions are given for calling Jython code from within Java. Also, the reader is taken through instructions on setting up Jython with their IDE (a must for any Java developer) and using JDBC calls from within your scripts.

Next, the reader is taken on a journey through using Jython with JSP, Django, Pylons, Swing integration, and - very importantly - deployment to Java application servers such as JBoss and Glassfish. Readers are then exposed to testing techniques for Python/Jython,and details on Concurrency in Java and Jython.

The book ends with several Appendixes which should not be missed. Parsing XML with Jython? It's there. Writing Ant task? Yep.

I give the book a 4 out of 5. The only thing that would have made the book better would have been to spend a little less time talking about Python syntax and explaining only the differences between the languages. My thought is that if someone buys this book, they have likely already read an introductory book on Python and will spend much of the first 160 pages reviewing what they already know. This could have been condensed to about 15 pages by showing only the differences between the languages. However, as I mentioned before, the comparisons of features, and the places where the integration points are mentioned, are worth reading that section.

I should warn Python developers looking to learn more about Java. This book is not for you. Many of the topics covered assume the reader has existing knowledge of Java, including application servers and GUI development with Swing.

If you are looking for a book on Jython, this is the only book I would consider buying. I highly recommend it for any developer looking to gain the speed and ease of Python within their projects. So, go out and buy the book. Support the authors for the obvious hard work they put into making such a great book.

I have used Jython on-and-off since it went by the name JPython. There was a period during which I feared, like others, that Jython (and thus Python for the Java platform) was doomed to stagnation and a slow death. Thankfully, this great programming tool has been resurrected in the last year and brought on a par with the current mainstream CPython 2.5.x production version. This has made it possible to bring the use of many powerful pure Python libraries and frameworks to the Java run-time world.

All that was missing was the cherry on the cake, a definitive book on the subject. And this volume provides just that. It gives well-rounded coverage of the multitude of areas where the application of Jython is now possible.

I personally found the section on "Using Jython Within Java Applications" very enlightening for a small project I was working on as well as for its approach on implementing Java Object Factories in general.

The open source version of this book is available at [...]. However, nothing beats keeping the hard-copy handy for convenience or commuter reading.

I'm a fairly experienced Java programmer with some exposure to Python. I needed to understand all the nuts and bolts of how Jython works for a project I have been assigned to. This book is the best I have seen. It covers everything I need at the right level. The Java -- Jython integration story is particularly well told. Thanks for the book!