Hybrids In Bloom
A couple of big stories in the wide world of scripting languages running on virtual machine platforms.
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IronPython, the .NET implementation of Python created by Jython creator Jim Hugunin, released version 1.0.
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The two primary developers of the JRuby project, implementing a Java-based Ruby interpreter, were hired by Sun with the mandate to bring JRuby to 1.0. Unsurprisingly, I think this is all great. Programming hybrids are a beautiful thing. The more tools the merrier, and the more ways to combine the best parts of different tools, the merrier squared.
The amazing thing about IronPython is that it benchmarks as being faster than traditional CPython, which seems sort of counter-intuitive. (I’m assuming, based on nothing at all, that there’s a higher memory load, but if I’m wrong, I’m sure somebody will point that out).
One of the interesting things about JRuby is a certain shift in momentum. When Jim Hugunin created JPython, the primary goal was to be able to use existing Java libraries with Python syntax. The JRuby team (and by extension, Sun), in contrast, seem to be comparatively more interested in using existing Ruby libraries (like Campfire and Rails) on a JVM backdrop than in using existing Java classes.
For instance, JRuby does not seem to have an analogue to the Jython shortcut of using converting attribute assignment in Jython (foo.bar = 3) to a Java bean setter (foo.setbar(3)), which makes Java classes feel more Pythonic. (Again, correct me if wrong, the existing tutorials don’t touch on this point, and I’m basing this on a possibly out-of-date article). (UPDATE: Somebody did correct me – JRuby does have this style. I wonder if it also works on constructors the way Jython does. So the point below is somewhat invalidated.)
And I don’t mean this as a good/bad thing, either – it’s perfectly all right for the different tools to have different priorities. It’s fascinating that Ruby is now seen as bringing a host of useful tools to the Java platform, in a way that I think we would have been laughed at a few years ago for suggesting that strongly about Jython.
Good luck and more power to everyone, I can’t wait for Java on Rails…