Jython is an implementation of the

Python programming language Python is a high-level, general-purpose programming language. Its design philosophy emphasizes code readability with the use of significant indentation. Python is dynamically type-checked and garbage-collected. It supports multiple prog ...

designed to run on the

Java Java is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea (a part of Pacific Ocean) to the north. With a population of 156.9 million people (including Madura) in mid 2024, proje ...

platform. It was known as JPython until 1999.

Overview

Jython programs can import and use any Java class. Except for some standard modules, Jython programs use Java classes instead of Python modules. Jython includes almost all of the modules in the standard

distribution, lacking only some of the modules implemented originally in C. For example, a user interface in Jython could be written with Swing, AWT or SWT. Jython compiles Python source code to

Java bytecode Java bytecode is the instruction set of the Java virtual machine (JVM), the language to which Java and other JVM-compatible source code is compiled. Each instruction is represented by a single byte, hence the name bytecode, making it a compact ...

(an intermediate language) either on demand or statically.

History

Jython was initially created in late 1997 to replace C with

for performance-intensive code accessed by Python programs, moving to

SourceForge SourceForge is a web service founded by Geoffrey B. Jeffery, Tim Perdue, and Drew Streib in November 1999. SourceForge provides a centralized software discovery platform, including an online platform for managing and hosting open-source soft ...

in October 2000. The

Python Software Foundation The Python Software Foundation (PSF) is an American nonprofit organization devoted to the Python programming language, launched on March 6, 2001. The mission of the foundation is to foster development of the Python community and is responsible fo ...

awarded a grant in January 2005. Jython 2.5 was released in June 2009.

Status and roadmap

The most recent release is Jython 2.7.4. It was released on August 18, 2024 and is compatible with Python 2.7. Python 3 compatible changes are planned in Jython 3 Roadmap. Although Jython implements the Python language specification, it has some differences and incompatibilities with

CPython CPython is the reference implementation of the Python programming language. Written in C and Python, CPython is the default and most widely used implementation of the Python language. CPython can be defined as both an interpreter and a comp ...

, which is the

reference implementation In the software development process, a reference implementation (or, less frequently, sample implementation or model implementation) is a program that implements all requirements from a corresponding specification. The reference implementation ...

of Python.

License terms

From version 2.2 on, Jython (including the standard library) is released under the

Python Software Foundation License The Python Software Foundation License (PSFL) is a BSD-style, permissive software license which is compatible with the GNU General Public License (GPL). Its primary use is for distribution of the Python project software and its documentatio ...

(v2). Older versions are covered by the ''Jython 2.0, 2.1 license'' and the ''JPython 1.1.x Software License''. The command-line interpreter is available under the Apache Software License.

Usage

JBoss Application Server WildFly, formerly known as JBoss AS, or simply JBoss, is an application server written by JBoss, now developed by Red Hat. WildFly is written in Java and implements the Java Platform, Enterprise Edition (Java EE) specification. It runs on mult ...

command line interface A command-line interface (CLI) is a means of interacting with software via commands each formatted as a line of text. Command-line interfaces emerged in the mid-1960s, on computer terminals, as an interactive and more user-friendly alternati ...

scripting using Jython *

Oracle Weblogic Server Oracle Fusion Middleware (FMW, also known as Fusion Middleware) consists of several software products from Oracle Corporation. FMW spans multiple services, including Java EE and developer tools, integration services, business intelligence, co ...

Scripting Tool uses Jython * IBM

Rational Rationality is the quality of being guided by or based on reason. In this regard, a person acts rationally if they have a good reason for what they do, or a belief is rational if it is based on strong evidence. This quality can apply to an ...

development tools allow Jython scripting * IBM WebSphere Application Server tool scripting with ''

wsadmin The wsadmin tool is a command shell for the purpose of performing systems administration on all the artifacts in an IBM WebSphere Application Server (WAS) cell. It gets its name from the name of the shell script that invokes this command shell. ...

'' allows using Jython and Jacl * ZK – a Java Ajax framework that allows glue logic written in Jython * Ignition - A software development platform focused on HMI and SCADA *

Ghidra Ghidra (pronounced GEE-druh; ) is a free and open source reverse engineering tool developed by the National Security Agency (NSA) of the United States. The binaries were released at RSA Conference in March 2019; the sources were published one ...

- a

reverse engineering Reverse engineering (also known as backwards engineering or back engineering) is a process or method through which one attempts to understand through deductive reasoning how a previously made device, process, system, or piece of software accompl ...

tool developed by the NSA allows plugins to be written in

or Jython * openHAB - home automation software

References

External links

* {{Authority control JVM programming languages Object-oriented programming languages Python (programming language) implementations Scripting languages Software using the Python Software Foundation License