Why I decided to discontinue PyExecJS and Python-CoffeeScript ?

gistfile1.md

What is PyExecJS and Python-CoffeeScript.

They are Python libraries that I developped on 2011.

• PyExecJS: Automatically picks the best runtime available to evaluate your JavaScript program.
• Python-CoffeeScript: A bridge to the JS CoffeeScript compiler.

They are ports of ruby gems with same name (execjs and ruby-coffee-script).

The aim of them were to compile CoffeeScript code on Windows XP. It was difficult and tangled to install Ruby, NodeJS or V8 (at least, I thought so). What I could use were builtin JScript and Python (which is installed with installer).

Current status

EOL. PyExecJS and Python-CoffeeScript are no longer maintananced. Bugs are not be fixed (even if they are trivial or essential).

We suggest to use other library or to make a fork.

Reason of EOL #1: node is available on Windows

Currently, NodeJS works on Windows 10.

• To execute JavaScript snippet, We can use subprocess.check_output(['node', ...]).
• To compile CoffeeScript code, we can use build tool such as WebPacker.

So, I think that PyExecJS and Python-CoffeeScript are useless (for my original purpose).

Reason of EOL #2: It seems that PyExecJS is improperly used

It seems for me that PyExecJS is mainly used as a bridge to NodeJS.

However, As a bridge to NodeJS, PyExecJS is badly designed. It is because I designed (cloned) PyExecJS as a adapter to cover-up difference of JS engines (NodeJS, PyV8, JScript, etc..). So, PyExecJS does not support NodeJS specific features (such as to specify NODE_ENV). It is difficult to add features while keeping consistency with original design.

If we want to call NodeJS function from Python, I think we should use raw subprocess.check_output or an single purpose library.

Thanks

Thanks for using PyExecJS and Python-CoffeeScript, for sending merge requests and issues.

hi can you make library to make possible compile coffee from python? that exactly what im looking for, but you said it no longer maintained

@dima734 https://github.com/amol-/dukpy#coffeescript-compiler fyi

Hello @doloopwhile, check out PythonMonkey https://github.com/Distributive-Network/PythonMonkey - a Python library that uses the SpiderMonkey JS engine to execute JavaScript from Python.

Just $ pip install pythonmonkey to get started!

Example #1 (pythonmonkey.eval)

Evaluating JavaScript code in Python.

>>> import pythonmonkey as pm
>>> hello = pm.eval("(func) => { func('Hello World!')}")
>>> hello(print)
Hello World!

---

Example #2 (pythonmonkey.require)

Loading a JavaScript module from Python and executing it.
main.py:

import pythonmonkey as pm
test = pm.require('./my-javascript-module');
test.sayHello() # this prints hello, world

my-javascript-module.js:

exports.sayHello = () => { console.log('hello, world') };

$ python3 main.py outputs hello, world!

RIP