Jython Essentials or Designing for Virtual Communities in the Service of Learning

Jython Essentials: Rapid Scripting in Java

Author: Samuele Pedroni

Jython is an implementation of the Python programming language written in 100% pure Java, so it runs under any compliant Java Virtual Machine. The secret to Jython's popularity lies in the combination of Java's libraries and tools, with Python's rapid development capabilities. With Jython, you can write Python programs that integrate seamlessly with any Java code. And like Python, Jython can be used interactively, so you can get immediate results as you are programming. Jython Essentials provides a solid introduction to the Python language, offering a brief but thorough tour of the Python concepts you'll need to understand to use Jython effectively. The book makes frequent comparisons between Python and Java, with special emphasis on the different object-oriented semantics of the two languages, so Java programmers can quickly get up to speed with Jython. Jython Essentials also covers the various ways in which Jython and Java can interact. For example, Jython code can create instances of preexisting Java classes and call methods in those instances. You can write Jython classes that are direct subclasses of existing Java classes and use introspection to discern the capabilities of JavaBeans components. This book provides examples of how to use Jython with existing Java libraries, including the Swing GUI toolkit, the JDBC database API, the Servlet API, and various XML tools. And finally, the book shows how Jython can be used as a scripting language within a Java program. With Jython Essentials, you have everything you need to start creating applications that mix the best of Python's interactivity and Java's robust libraries.

Table of Contents:

	Foreword
	Preface
1	Introduction to Jython	1
2	Jython Basics	16
3	Jython Control Flow	46
4	Modules and Functions	66
5	Object-Oriented Jython	83
6	Using Java from Jython	104
7	Inheriting from Java	120
8	Reflection and JavaBeans	131
9	Using Swing	144
10	Using Java Libraries	161
11	Jython Standard Library	178
12	Embedding Jython Inside Java	203
13	Compiling Jython	218
A	Installing Jython	231
B	Jython Options and Registry	234
C	Jython Exceptions	240
D	Jython and CPython Differences	244
E	Java-to-Python Quick Reference	250
	Index	257

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Designing for Virtual Communities in the Service of Learning

Author: Sasha A Barab

This volume explores the theoretical, design, learning, and methodological questions relevant to designing for and researching web-based communities to support the learning process. Coming from diverse academic backgrounds, the authors examine what we do and do not know about the processes and practices of designing communities to support educational processes. Taken as a collection, the chapters point to the challenges and complex tensions that emerge when designing for a web-supported community, especially when the focal practice of the community is learning.