javaclass

README.txt

145:904c1223e3aa
2005-01-23 Paul Boddie Added notes about dispatcher methods.
     1 This file contains some information on the essential concepts and principles
     2 involved in the use of this software.
     3 
     4 Installation
     5 ------------
     6 
     7 Usually, I issue this command first:
     8 
     9 python setup.py build
    10 
    11 The following should, in any case, be sufficient:
    12 
    13 python setup.py install
    14 
    15 I don't think distutils supports uninstall, but the installation just adds the
    16 java and javaclass packages to your site-packages directory and the
    17 runclass.py program to the same bin directory that python resides in.
    18 
    19 Class Search Paths
    20 ------------------
    21 
    22 Java classes belonging to packages are located using sys.path or PYTHONPATH
    23 in the same way that they would be located using the Java classpath (or
    24 CLASSPATH environment variable). Thus, the rules for locating package
    25 classes are as follows:
    26 
    27  * Classes residing within plain directories which represent a package
    28    hierarchy can be accessed by putting the parent directory of the top of
    29    the package hierarchy on the PYTHONPATH (or sys.path). For example, a
    30    package called mypackage, represented by a directory of the same name at
    31    /home/java/classes/mypackage, would be made accessible by adding the
    32    /home/java/classes directory to the PYTHONPATH.
    33 
    34  * Classes residing within .jar files can be accessed by putting the path to
    35    each .jar file on the PYTHONPATH. For example, a package called
    36    mypackage, represented by a file located at /home/java/lib/mypackage.jar,
    37    would be made accessible by adding the /home/java/lib/mypackage.jar file
    38    to the PYTHONPATH.
    39 
    40 Note that classes not belonging to a package cannot be accessed via such
    41 search paths and are made available using a special module (see "Non-package
    42 Classes" below).
    43 
    44 Importing Classes
    45 -----------------
    46 
    47 In Python, the following statement should be enough to enable Java class
    48 import:
    49 
    50   import javaclass.classhook
    51 
    52 (Other modules reside in the javaclass package, so it is possible to access
    53 them without changing Python's import mechanisms, should such modification be
    54 undesirable or unnecessary.)
    55 
    56 Importing Non-package Classes
    57 -----------------------------
    58 
    59 Classes which do not belong to a package are only accessible when residing
    60 in the current working directory of any program attempting to use them. Such
    61 classes will not be made available automatically, but must be imported from
    62 a special module called __this__.
    63 
    64  * Usage of the "import __this__" statement will cause all classes in the
    65    current directory to be made available within the __this__ module.
    66 
    67  * Usage of the "from __this__ import" construct will cause all classes in
    68    the current directory to be processsed, but only named classes will be
    69    made available in the global namespace unless "*" was specified (which
    70    will, as usual, result in all such classes being made available).
    71 
    72 Running Java Classes
    73 --------------------
    74 
    75 Java classes with a public, static main method can be run directly using the
    76 runclass.py program.
    77 
    78   * Free-standing classes (ie. not belonging to packages) can be run from
    79     the directory in which they reside. For example, suitable classes in the
    80     tests directory would be run as follows:
    81 
    82     cd tests
    83     runclass.py MainTest hello world
    84 
    85   * Classes residing in packages can be run by ensuring that the packages
    86     are registered on the PYTHONPATH (see "Class Search Paths" above). Then,
    87     the testpackage.MainTest class (for example) would be run as follows:
    88 
    89     runclass.py testpackage.MainTest hello world
    90 
    91 Accessing Python Libraries from Java
    92 ------------------------------------
    93 
    94 To wrap Python libraries for use with Java, skeleton classes need to be
    95 compiled corresponding to each of the wrapped classes. Each of the methods
    96 in the skeleton classes can be empty (or return any permissible value) since
    97 the only purpose they serve is to provide the Java compiler with information
    98 about the Python libraries.
    99 
   100   1. Compile the skeleton classes:
   101 
   102      javac examples/Tkinter/tkjava/*.java
   103 
   104   2. Compile the Java classes which use the wrapped Python libraries:
   105 
   106      javac -classpath examples/Tkinter examples/Tkinter/Application.java
   107 
   108   3. Run the wrap.py tool on the directory where the skeleton class files
   109      reside, providing the name of the Python package or module being
   110      wrapped. This converts the directory into a Python package:
   111 
   112      python tools/wrap.py examples/Tkinter/tkjava Tkinter
   113 
   114      Since the Java class files, if left in the processed directory, would be
   115      detected and imported using the special import hook, and since this would
   116      result in two conflicting implementations being imported (with possibly the
   117      non-functional Java classes being made available instead of the generated
   118      wrapper classes), the wrap.py tool removes all processed class files,
   119      leaving only Python source files in the processed directory.
   120 
   121   4. The Java classes which use the wrapped Python libraries can now be
   122      imported and used as described above. The wrapper package (tkjava in
   123      the above example) needs to reside in sys.path or PYTHONPATH, as must
   124      the wrapped library (Tkinter in the above example).
   125 
   126      cd examples/Tkinter
   127      runclass.py Application
   128 
   129 Issues
   130 ------
   131 
   132 Investigate better exception raising. Currently, exceptions have to be
   133 derived from object so that object.__new__ can be used upon them. However,
   134 this seems to prevent them from being raised, and they need to be wrapped
   135 within Exception so that the information can be transmitted to the
   136 exception's handler.
   137 
   138 Consider nicer ways of writing the method names in Python, perhaps using a
   139 function which takes the individual parameter types as arguments.