Pyjamas is a port of Google Web Toolkit to Python, and thus enables the development of Rich Media AJAX applications in Python, with no need for special browser plugins. Pyjamas contains a stand-alone python-to-javascript compiler, and also a Widget Set API that looks very similar to Desktop Widget Set APIs (such as PyQT4 or PyGTK2).
Pyjamas also contains a Desktop Widget Set version, running as pure python, with four useable Desktop ports available. Using web browser technology startlingly provides an alternative to traditional Widget sets, such as PyQT4 and PyGTK2, with the advantage of having full support for HTML, CSS, Plugins and other web-related features already built-in. For the windows port, this can save users and developers around 30mb of downloads, as MSHTML is preinstalled on the Windows Operating System, as part of IE.
For more information and documentation, see:
For issue tracking:
Mailing list:
IRC:
| Server: | irc.freenode.net |
|---|---|
| Channel: | #pyjs |
Pyjamas runs your python application in a Web Browser (as javascript). Pyjamas-Desktop runs exactly the same python application on the Desktop (as pure python).
Release 0.6 of Pyjamas incorporated Pyjamas-Desktop directly into the Pyjamas Distribution. To use Pyjamas-Desktop there are three choices, with more planned [MacOSX PyObjC; KDE's PyKHTML].
All ports of Pyjamas-Desktop will require a JSON library to be installed: as there are plenty already, it is counter-productive to write yet another one. simplejson is recommended if the version of python is 2.5 or less. Python 2.6 and above come with a json library installed by default.
XULRunner
install hulahop and python-xpcom. hulahop, from OLPC SugarLabs, is distributed with both Debian and Ubuntu; python-xpcom is part of XULRunner and is also distributed with both Debian and Ubuntu. Other users should investigate the installation instructions for python-xpcom and hulahop for the operating system of their choice on the appropriate web sites.
Sadly, modifications made by the Mozilla team to the xulrunner API have not propagated through to python-xpcom due to lack of attention and support by the Mozilla team. Older versions of XULRunner must be used: versions 1.9.0 or 1.9.1 are known to be suitable, as is version 9.0. Versions 10 and above are known to segfault. The Mozilla Foundation is NOT paying attention to the stability of xulrunner for embedded purposes: many applications (not just pyjamas-desktop) are now being left without working, stable code.
PyWebKitGtk
There are two versions of PyWebKitGTK: please do not use the older version which has been "taken over" by the Webkit team: the Webkit team have decided that full support of and direct-equivalent interoperability with the full W3C HTML specifications is not important.
The version of pywebkitgtk at http://www.gnu.org/software/pythonwebkit provides full and direct python-equivalent interoperability for all functions for which access through javascript has been provided: thus, Pyjamas Desktop will function correctly.
PyWebkitGtk must be explicitly enabled. create a $HOME/.pyjd/pyjdrc file containing the following two lines:
[gui] engine=pywebkitgtk
PyWebkitDFB
This is an experimental but minimally functional engine that is extremely quick to start up. The build dependencies are also drastically smaller than any of the other web browser engines (which indirectly contributes to the fast startup time).
HTML5 is fully supported, with the exception of Video and Canvas; also missing at present is support for Frames. Despite the present limitations, PyWebkitDFB is highly suited to embedded systems, as well as being useable as an excellent and ultra-quick general-purpose web browser engine.
PyWebkitDFB must be explicitly enabled. create a $HOME/.pyjd/pyjdrc file containing the following two lines:
[gui] engine=pywebkitdfb
MSHTML
For Windows users, all that's required, other than installing python and Internet Explorer, is one further tiny package: Win32 "comtypes".
Win32 "comtypes" can be downloaded here: * http://sourceforge.net/projects/comtypes/
Unlike the other ports, which can comprise a whopping great bundle of anything up to 30mb in size, the MSHTML port literally requires nothing more than comtypes, thanks to the far-sighted design of the MSHTML Trident Engine and its extensive COM interface.
PyQt4
Kindly contributed by Thomas Henning, the PyQT4 port requires a current PyQt-snapshot with Qt 4.6 (which includes QWebElement, a DOM-like API for WebKit).
The PyQt4 engine is highly experimental, and requires a configuration file to explicitly enable it. create a $HOME/.pyjd/pyjdrc file containing the following two lines:
[gui] engine=pyqt4
Sadly, the PyQT4 port serves more as a demonstration of how never to access web browser DOM functionality from python (ever). The reason is simple: to access all but about 1% of the available DOM functionality, javascript code snippets must be created on-the-fly and executed, and all incoming and outgoing data must be dynamically translated between python and javascript (as Qt4 objects).
Aside from providing truly dreadful performance, this technical approach should have you either in hysterics, throwing up or requiring counselling, depending on your resilience and constitution. All is not lost: if funding is made available, the PythonWebkit project can, with very little actual coding required, be ported to Qt4, as the GNU PythonWebkit Project has been designed to provide python access to DOM functionality, independent of the actual GUI display engine being used.
PyKDE
The PyKDE engine has been done as a "thank you" to the KDE Team, without whom Webkit would not exist. Sadly, though, for technical reasons, the PyKDE engine requires that the entire KHTML Part be compiled with c++ "rtti" enabled, and the majority of GNU/Linux Distributions explicitly disable RTTI due to it having an impact on performance.
If this is ever fixed, then out of sheer nostalgia and bloody-mindedness, the PyKDE engine will have continued support, even though the KHTML engine is only DOM TR2 compliant (at present).