Luxor, Sulu, etc... and Python/Jython

I'd just like to suggest that when people talk about
Luxor, Sulu, etc... and their interfacing with
Python/Jython that they make an effort to properly
distinguish between the two.

Not to belittle these efforts, but it's getting quite
annoying to waste time checking out Luxor, Sulu,
etc... thinking that, because they are announced to
work with 'Python', they can actually work without
Java, when in truth, it is Jython that they need to
work with.

Java is certainly a cool technology, but in my
perspective, Python (CPython) competes with Java in
many respects such that Java is not at all appropriate
to use as a lower level layer underneath Python -
rather, C is.   

I'm sure there are those who will beg to differ with
the above assessment, but the point remains that with
the libraries available for CPython covering the same
broad spectrum of cross-platform functionality as J2SE
(and J2EE to some extent), many people have zero need
for Java.  

However, GUI support is its one weak spot and is
precisely why the interest in XUL (for which, sadly,
there are no satisfactory CPython solutions right
now).

Like previously mentioned, it would be great if
someone wrote a Python-scriptable XUL/XBL
implementation that worked on top of Win32 (and
perhaps Avalon eventually) and Xlib.  Such a
technology would compete directly with, and offer a
very attractive and *superior* cross-platform widget
interface alternative to Qt, wxPython, Swing, and Gtk.

Such an endeavour would be an enormous undertaking
though and it would be a reinvention of so many
wheels... so the two alternatives below are also
acceptable (at least for the interim?):

I. modify Mozilla XUL/XBL such that its widgets were
directly scriptable with Python.  

PROS: Relatively easier and could probably be done by
just figuring out XPCOM/PyXPCOM.

CONS: needs Mozilla or a Mozilla GRE to be installed
along with Python


II. make Luxor XUL work without needing Java or Swing

CONS: a lot harder and would require knowing writing
stuff in GDI and Xlib... reinventing what the Mozilla
XUL widgets have already done.  Work on Luxor XUL
would only be the tip of the iceberg...

PROS: theoretically... blazing fast speed. 
Interestingly enough, the Mozilla XUL widgets are
likely written against Xlib/Win32 and yet are pretty
sluggish (seems to be getting more optimized by the
day though... XPCOM/XBL could be to blame).


		
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