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Introduction to Jython, Part 2: Programming essentials

Barry Feigenbaum, Sr. Consulting IT Architect, IBM

Dr. Barry Feigenbaum is a member of the IBM Worldwide Accessibility Center, where he is part of team that helps IBM make its own products accessible to people with disabilities. Dr. Feigenbaum has published several books and articles, holds several patents, and has spoken at industry conferences such as JavaOne. He serves as an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Computer Science at the University of Texas, Austin.

Dr. Feigenbaum has more than 10 years of experience using object-oriented languages like C++, Smalltalk, the Java programming language, and Jython. He uses the Java language and Jython frequently in his work. Dr. Feigenbaum is a Sun Certified Java Programmer, Developer, and Architect.

Acknowledgements

I would like to acknowledge Mike Squillace and Roy Feigel for their excellent technical reviews of this tutorial.

Summary: This is the second installment in a two-part tutorial designed to introduce you to the Jython scripting language. Part 1 covered the basics of Jython, including installation and setup, access options and file compilation, syntax and data types, program structure, procedural statements, and functions. In Part 2 you will delve into some of the more advanced aspects of working with this powerful scripting language, starting with an in-depth introduction to object-oriented programming with Jython. You'll also learn about topics essential to the mechanics of application development in any language, including debugging, string processing, and file I/O.

Date: 08 Apr 2004
Level: Introductory

Activity: 44699 views
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About this tutorial

What is this tutorial about?

This is the second installment in a two-part tutorial designed to introduce you to the Jython scripting language. Jython is an implementation of Python that has been seamlessly integrated with the Java platform. Python is a powerful object-oriented scripting language used primarily in UNIX environments.

In Part 1 of this tutorial, you learned the basics of Jython, including installation and setup, access options and file compilation, syntax and data types, program structure, procedural statements, and functions. In Part 2 we will delve into some of the more advanced aspects of working with this powerful scripting language, starting with an in-depth introduction to object-oriented programming with Jython. We'll also discuss topics essential to the mechanics of application development in any language, including debugging, string processing, and file I/O.

By the time you have completed this second half of the two-part introduction to Jython, you will be able to write and implement complete functions, classes, and programs in Jython.

Should I take this tutorial?

This tutorial is designed as a progressive introduction to Jython. If you have not completed Part 1 of the tutorial, you should do so before proceeding to Part 2. Both the conceptual discussion and many of the code examples presented here will be difficult to follow without reference to Part 1.

In this second half of the tutorial,we will cover the following aspects of scripting with Jython:

Object-oriented programming with Jython
Debugging
Java support
String processing
File I/O
Building a Swing GUI application in Jython

To benefit from the discussion, you should be familiar with at least one procedural programming language and the basic concepts of computer programming, including command-line processing. To fully utilize Jython's features you should also be familiar with the basic concepts of object-oriented programming. To fully understand the GUI application example at the end of the tutorial you should have prior experience with Swing GUI programming, although you will be able to glean a lot from the preceding discussion and examples. It will also be helpful to have a working knowledge of the Java platform, because Jython runs on a JVM; although this is not a requirement of the tutorial.

Note that this tutorial is oriented towards Windows systems. All command examples will employ Windows syntax. In most cases similar commands perform the same functions on UNIX systems, although these commands will not be demonstrated.

Tools, code, and installation requirements

You must have Jython 2.1 or higher installed on your development system to complete this tutorial. Your development system may be any ASCII text editor (such as Windows Notepad) combined with the command prompt. The tutorial includes detailed instructions for getting and installing Jython on your system.

To use Jython you must also have a Java Runtime Environment (JRE) installed on your system. It is recommended that you use the latest JRE available (1.4.2 at the time of writing), but any version at or beyond Java 1.2 should work fine. If you are going to use Jython from a browser (that is, as an applet), you must have at least a JRE 1.1 available to the browser. See the Resources section to download the latest version of the JDK.

All code examples in this tutorial have been tested on Jython running on the Sun Java 1.4.1 JRE on Windows 2000. Examples should work without change on any similar configuration on other operating systems.

Included with the tutorial is a set of appendices detailing all of the code examples you will use to learn about Jython. All code examples have been tested on Jython running on the Sun Java 1.4.1 JRE on Windows 2000. Examples should work without change on any similar configuration on other operating systems.

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