Lightweight Scripting for Java

BeanShell JSR Passes!

JSR-274 the BeanShell Scripting Language, has passed the voting process with flying colors. This means that we will proceed with forming the expert group to write a language specification and work towards getting BeanShell included in the J2SE at some point in the future. Some comments on the initiating the JSR can be found in Pat Niemeyer's blog on java.net.

BeanShell Community Wiki Opens!

I'm pleased to announce the opening of the BeanShell Community Wiki. This is the first step in our migration to our new hosting site on GitHub. There's not much there yet, but we expect you all to take care of that right away!

BeanShell at JavaOne 2005

Join us for a BeanShell BOF session at JavaOne, 2005. The talk is tentatively titled "The Future of BeanShell and Java Compatible Scripting". We'll also be cooperating with the JSR-223 session on the new javax.script API which will be bundled with an upcoming J2SE release.

BeanShell 2.0 beta 1 Released!

With version 2.0 BeanShell becomes a fully Java compatible scripting language. BeanShell is now capable of interpreting ordinary Java source and loading .java source files from the class path. BeanShell scripted classes are fully typed and appear to outside Java code and via reflective inspection as ordinary classes. However their implementation is fully dynamic and they may include arbitrary BeanShell scripts in their bodies, methods, and constructors. Users may now freely mix loose, unstructured BeanShell scripts, method closures, and full scripted classes. Please see the announcement for details and known bugs in the initial release.

BeanShell Support in Ant 1.5 and IBM Bean Scripting Framework 2.3

With version 1.5 Ant now provides explicit support for BeanShell as a pluggable scripting language via the BSF. Ironically, as of version 2.3 BSF now adds BeanShell support by registering it as one of its "well known" scripting languages. This means that you can use BeanShell in Ant 1.5 and also in any BSF aware application with BSF 2.3 (confusing enough?)

BEA Weblogic Shipping Beanshell with Weblogic Application Server 6.x

I am happy to announce that Weblogic will be making use of the LGPL/SPL licensing and shipping BeanShell with the Weblogic Server.

Sun to Ship Beanshell with Forte for Java

I am pleased to officially announce that Sun will be shipping BeanShell with an upcoming release of Forte for Java and will make it available in the NetBeans IDE. To facilitate this BeanShell has moved to a dual licensing arrangement. You may now opt to use BeanShell under the terms of the Sun Public License, or you may (as always) continue to use and develop BeanShell under the terms of the LGPL.

BeanShell in the News

Check out the July 2000 edition of the Java Developer's Journal for a ten page article about BeanShell and Dynamic Java. I'm also happy to announce that BeanShell is now included with my book Learning Java - O'Reilly & Associates.