JES4py - a JES emulator for Python 3

JES, the Jython Environment for Students, is an educational IDE used in the Media Computation curriculum developed by Mark Guzdial and Barbara Ericson at Georgia Tech. More details on the curriculum are available at http://www.mediacomputation.org/.

Jython is a Java implementation of Python 2.x and was designed to allow rapid application development and scripting access to Java functionality.

JES4py implements a subset of JES features that can be used in Python 3.x scripts. The goal is to provide the pedagogical assets of JES without requiring Jython or needing to use JES's IDE.

Prerequisites

1. An IDE (Integrated Development Environment) of your choice. Visual Studio Code is recommended if you have no preference.
2. Python 3.6 or higher
3. A Supported OS: Windows, MacOS, Linux

Installing JES4py

JES4py needs Python 3.6 or higher. Before proceeding, find out how to run Python 3 from the command line on your computer. Usually this is done by typing python or python3 at the command prompt. You can check your version with python --version or python3 --version.

Ideally you will be able to install JES4py using a single command: use either

python -m pip install -U jes4py

or

python3 -m pip install -U jes4py

If this fails, it is probably due to some missing prerequisites on your system. Study the error message for clues as to what is needed. Trying to install the prerequisite one-by-one may be helpful (using python or python3 as appropriate):

python3 -m pip install -U wxPython
python3 -m pip install -U wave
python3 -m pip install -u simpleaudio

Once these are installed, rerun the command

python3 -m pip install -U jes4py

to install the JES4py package.

Using JES4py

To use JES4py functions in a Python interactive session you should type the following command at the Python prompt.

from jes4py import *

To access JES4py functions in from a Python program, you should include the same line at the top of any file containing a Python program that uses JES4py functions. For example:

from jes4py import *

filename = pickAFile()
print('Hello! You picked the file', filename)