Jython Development on Google App Engine

Question

Does anyone have any direct experience (good or bad) using Jython with Google App Engine?

Answer 1

First, there are people who claim that Jython, Querces, and JRuby can Beat their Native Counterparts when it comes to speed, utilizing the power of the JVM.

However, there is some conflicting information on the speed of Jython. A Stack Overflow user claims that Jython is the slowest of many of the languages involved in a speed test he conducted.

Neither of the performance questions really involve App Engine, just the JVM in general.

In this article posted by a Jython committer, Alan Kennedy claims that Jython on App Engine combines the rapid-development nature of Python with the bountiful libraries available in the JVM. Jython is Python, but it's Python that has direct access to Java classes.

I have some experience with this with Querces PHP. I ported the JQuery Form Builder plug-in to Google App Engine. It's PHP code, but that PHP is able to directly access DAO objects that were written in Java. Likewise, Jython is able to do the same.

Alan Kennedy also met a Challenge issued by Nick Johnson whereby he demonstrates something that can be done with Jython on App Engine that would otherwise be difficult to accomplish in pure Python, XSLT transformations. He answers the strike-through question in Nick's answer: Why would you want to?