Search This Blog

Sunday, March 14, 2010

Introduction to Pyjamas: Exploit the Synergy of GWT and Python

Pyjamas is a cool tool, or framework, for developing AsynchronousJavaScript and XML (Ajax) applications in Python. It's a versatiletool that you can use to write comprehensive applications withoutwriting any JavaScript code. This series examines the myriad aspectsof Pyjamas, and this first article explores Pyjamas's background andbasic elements.

Google's Web Toolkit (GWT) lets you develop a Rich Internet Application(RIA) with Ajax, entirely in Java code. You can use the rich Java toolset(IDEs, refactoring, code completion, debuggers, and so on) to developapplications that can be deployed on all major Web browsers. With GWTyou can write applications that behave like desktop applications butrun in the browser. Pyjamas, a GWT port, is a tool and framework fordeveloping Ajax applications in Python.

WebKit, XUL, and their ilk bring modern flair to desktop applications.Pyjamas brings WebKit to Python developers. With Webkit, Pyjamas becomesa cross-browser and cross-platform set of GUI widgets. You can developwidgets that will run anywhere WebKit and XUL run. The Pyjamas API-basedapplication can live anywhere GWT applications would live. Plus, Pyjamaslets you write desktop applications built on top of WebKit and XUL.This is preferable to building applications on top of Qt or GTK becauseWebKit supports CSS, and it is used in many other places for reliablerendering (iPhone, Safari, Android, and so on).

With Pyjamas you create containers, then add widgets to the containers.The widgets can be labels, text fields, buttons, and so forth. Widgets,like buttons, have event handlers so you can listen for click eventsfrom the button..."
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/web/library/wa-aj-pyjamas/

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

The code for the Pyjamas Web Site, which is itself a Pyjamas application, was written by Luke Leighton. It has some pretty cool features, none of which "stand out", which is as it should be. Technology is not there to "dazzle" people or get in the way by promoting itself and its own "glory": it's there to make peoples' lives simpler and easier.