Matt wrote that he thinks that with JSR-223 “… Sun ignored an excellent existing scripting framework for Java (Jython) and opted to reinvent the wheel with Zend using PHP.”
Maybe someone can explain to me how JSR-223 is all about PHP… AFAIK, Sun did mention PHP as one of the scripting languages that could be used, but I seriously doubt that it will be the only one. Take a look at the Expert Group: Macromedia, Apple, Oracle, Zend, etc… Macromedia ColdFusion MX (and previous versions) can *already* use Java objects, the presentation I went to at JavaOne given by a guy from Zend noted that while PHP 4 and 5 can access Java objects, in his words “… it’s not scalable.” Is there something I’m missing?
Matt’s post doesn’t make sense to me either. This is the first I’ve heard of JSR-223, but it’s clear from reading the proposal that it’s not intended to be limited to PHP. In any case, I don’t see how Jython would be a good candidate–it runs on the JVM, whereas the point of this JSR seems to be to expose Java objects to scripting languages based on *other* technologies. To that end, I think CPython would be a more appropriate choice than Jython.
I’ll bet the reason PHP is going to be the reference impl is because Zend is willing to put resources on it, pure and simple.
I think the reason they are using php is that it will migrate a huge user base of php coders over to java. This is just what sun needs with .net making headway. Personaly I think the approch being taken over at cocoon is the best. EMCAScript with continuations.