JES 6.0 Final Release

This is likely the final version of JES, unless a Jython 3.0 is developed.

This version was brought to completion by Nigel Charleston, based on the beta work of Veronica Day and Audrey Zhang (see discussion at this blog post https://computinged.wordpress.com/2019/07/22/beta-release-of-new-jes-jython-environment-for-students-now-available-media-computation-for-python-ide/). Many thanks to R. Benjamin Shapiro for helping us with many technical questions.

JES 6.0 updates Jython to 2.7beta, uses the latest version of JMusic (from https://jythonmusic.me/), fixes many bugs, will run with Java 8, and creates a new facility to generate pictures from a collection of pixels and sounds from a collection of samples.

The Mac version is a little more complicated to run than usual. You will need to have Java 8 installed to run JES. Thanks to Brian Howard and Michael Stewart for helping to figure this out.

For all MacOS, unzip the folder and put the whole thing (no folder name changes, please) inside /Applications.

• For pre-Catalina, right-click on the JES application and choose "Open", then tell it that you really do want to open this downloaded program. After that, you can just double-click the JES application.

• For MacOS Catalina (and after), right-click on the jes.sh file and choose "Open", then tell it that you really do want to open this downloaded program. After that, you can just double-click the jes.sh file.

Brian Howard notes a complication if you try to have more version of Java on your MacOS with JES:

I have both Java 8 and Java 10 on this machine, and the Mac will automatically choose the most recent one unless told otherwise. It does not work with Java 10, for security reasons. I could run jes.sh from a Terminal after changing JAVA_HOME ("export JAVA_HOME=$(/usr/libexec/java_home -v 1.8)", but just changing JAVA_HOME isn't enough to allow it to run by double-clicking on either jes.sh or the JES 6.0 Mac.app icon. Following a tip in this Stack Overflow discussion: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/21964709/how-to-set-or-change-the-default-java-jdk-version-on-os-x I renamed the file /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk-10.0.1.jdk/Contents/Info.plist to Info.plist.disabled (I had to do it with sudo and enter my system password...). That was enough to make the automatic highest version search bypass Java 10 and pick Java 8 instead. I don't consider this a viable approach for beginning students, unless you know that they only have Java 8 installed.

JES 5.02: Maintenance Release

Fixes in JES 5.02 (with many thanks to HenryStevens and sportsracer48 for fixes):

• Fixes a problem if you quit during raw_input that you can't do another raw_input
• Fixes colorizing
• Makes autosave work again
• Fixes a threading error if you hit return too rapidly in the Command Area
• Unicode characters in input file get flagged. (Jython can't execute a line with unicode characters on it.)

JES 5.0 with Windows Line-Ending Fix

This is a bug-fix release to JES 5.0. Only the Windows version is significantly effected.
For Linux and Mac OS X, use the JES 5.011 release. For LInux, it was compiled on MacOS X, so should fix line endings issues. For Mac OS X, it fixes the About menu item wierdness (that it didn't say "JES").
The line-endings issue that 5.010 addresses doesn't effect those other platforms.

• Supervisor: Mark Guzdial
• Primary Developer: Matthew Frazier
• Contributors: Christine Alvarado, Stephen Bryant, Bill Manaris

The full changelog from JES 4.3 is given in jes/help/JESChangelog.txt, but the highlights include:

• Upgrading the Jython interpreter to version 2.5, making available new language features and speeding up many user programs.
• Adding code to JES and the installers to support double-clicking .py files to open them in JES, on all supported platforms.
• Bundling JMusic and the Jython Music libraries, allowing JES to be used with the text "Making Music with Computers" by Bill Manaris.
• Adding a plugin system that allows developers to easily bundle libraries for use with JES.
• Fixing the Watcher, so that user programs can be executed at arbitrary speeds.
• Adding new color schemes for the Command Window, which allow users to visually see the difference between return values and print output.
• Fixing numerous bugs.
• Correcting the spelling of "Loading Program."

Available Downloads

• jes-5.011-linux.tar.gz: A .tar.gz file for Linux or UNIX. Just unpack it and run jes.sh.
• jes-5.011-macosx.zip: A .zip file which contains a JES.app package for Mac OS X. It should work on any Mac of any CPU architecture.
• jes-5.010-windows.exe: An .exe file that installs JES on a Windows system. It includes a Java Runtime Environment, which will be installed automatically if necessary.
• jes-5.010-windows-java-included.zip: A .zip file for Windows, including a Java Runtime Environment for JES. Just unzip it and double-click JES.exe.
• jes-5.010-windows-java-required.zip: A .zip file for Windows, just like the java-included ZIP file but without the JRE. (This makes it much smaller.)
• jes-5.010-testkit.zip: A package containing the JES test suite and demos, to use for testing.

JES 5.0

This is the first release of JES since 2009.

• Supervisor: Mark Guzdial
• Primary Developer: Matthew Frazier
• Contributors: Christine Alvarado, Stephen Bryant, Bill Manaris

The full changelog from JES 4.3 is given in jes/help/JESChangelog.txt, but the highlights include:

• Upgrading the Jython interpreter to version 2.5, making available new language features and speeding up many user programs.
• Adding code to JES and the installers to support double-clicking .py files to open them in JES, on all supported platforms.
• Bundling JMusic and the Jython Music libraries, allowing JES to be used with the text "Making Music with Computers" by Bill Manaris.
• Adding a plugin system that allows developers to easily bundle libraries for use with JES.
• Fixing the Watcher, so that user programs can be executed at arbitrary speeds.
• Adding new color schemes for the Command Window, which allow users to visually see the difference between return values and print output.
• Fixing numerous bugs.
• Correcting the spelling of "Loading Program."

Available Downloads

• jes-5.0-linux.tar.gz: A .tar.gz file for Linux or UNIX. Just unpack it and run jes.sh.
• jes-5.0-macosx.zip: A .zip file which contains a JES.app package for Mac OS X. It should work on any Mac of any CPU architecture.
• jes-5.0-windows.exe: An .exe file that installes JES on a Windows system. It includes a Java Runtime Environment, which will be installed automatically if necessary.
• jes-5.0-windows-java-included.zip: A .zip file for Windows, including a Java Runtime Environment for JES. Just unzip it and double-click JES.exe.
• jes-5.0-windows-java-required.zip: A .zip file for Windows, just like the java-included ZIP file but without the JRE. (This makes it much smaller.)
• jes-5.0-testkit.zip: A package containing the JES test suite and demos, to use for testing.

JES 5.0 release candidate 1

This release candidate is likely to become the final release of JES 5.0. If no issues are raised, the candidate will be promoted to final release within the next week.

• Supervisor: Mark Guzdial
• Primary Developer: Matthew Frazier
• Contributors: Christine Alvarado, Stephen Bryant, Bill Manaris

Changes in RC 1

• Bundled the Jython Music libraries with JES.
• Added a plugin system. (There are currently no JES plugins, because the plugin system was created to deal with the contingency that we did not receive licensing approval to distribute Jython Music with JES. However, users who wish to distribute additional Java or Python libraries for JES will find the plugin system beneficial.)
• Made the Save/Open file chooser navigate to the current file's directory when saving or loading.
• Made the Save/Open file chooser change skin with the rest of the UI.
• Reduced the full path in the title bar to the basename. (This was the original behavior, but I missed that when implementing the new save/open code in beta 2.)
• Added a readme file, copyright file, and demos to the OS X package.
• Gzip the Linux package, instead of shipping an uncompressed .tar file.

The full changelog from JES 4.3 is given in jes/help/JESChangelog.txt.

Available Downloads

• jes-5.0rc1-linux.tar.gz: A .tar.gz file for Linux or UNIX. Just unpack it and run jes.sh.
• jes-5.0rc1-macosx.zip: A .zip file which contains a JES.app package for Mac OS X. It should work on any Mac of any CPU architecture.
• jes-5.0rc1-windows.exe: An .exe file that installes JES on a Windows system. It includes a Java Runtime Environment, which will be installed automatically if necessary.
• jes-5.0rc1-windows-java-included.zip: A .zip file for Windows, including a Java Runtime Environment for JES. Just unzip it and double-click JES.exe.
• jes-5.0rc1-windows-java-required.zip: A .zip file for Windows, just like the java-included ZIP file but without the JRE. (This makes it much smaller.)
• jes-5.0rc1-testkit.zip: A package containing the JES test suite and demos, to use for testing.

JES 5.0 beta 1

Development snapshot of JES 5.0. (The final release of JES 5.0 is expected by the end of August 2014.)

• Supervisor: Mark Guzdial
• Primary Developer: Matthew Frazier
• Contributors: Christine Alvarado, Stephen Bryant

Changes in Beta 1

• Added an "Open Recent File" menu.
• Reformed the restrictions on filenames for JES programs.
• Improved the layout for printing programs.
• Removed the code that automatically types function names when the user selects them from the "JES Functions" menu.
• Moved all of JES's Python application code into the jes package, instead of the top-level jes/python.
• Removed the JESLogBuffer logging system.
• Added code to the launchers to detect .jar files automatically, instead of hard-coding them.
• Audited and documented third-party software licenses.
• Improved the appearance of the Help browser on non-Metal skins.
• Fixed a Jython 2.5 upgrade bug that caused movie frames to appear out of order.
• Fixed a couple of bugs introduced by changes in previous alphas.

The full changelog from JES 4.3 is given in jes/help/JESChangelog.txt.

Available Downloads

• jes-5.0b1-linux.tar.gz: A .tar.gz file for Linux or UNIX. Just unpack it and run jes.sh.
• jes-5.0b1-macosx.zip: A .zip file which contains a JES.app package for Mac OS X. It should work on any Mac of any CPU architecture.
• jes-5.0b1-windows.exe: An .exe file that installes JES on a Windows system. It includes a Java Runtime Environment, which will be installed automatically if necessary.
• jes-5.0b1-windows-java-included.zip: A .zip file for Windows, including a Java Runtime Environment for JES. Just unzip it and double-click JES.exe.
• jes-5.0b1-windows-java-required.zip: A .zip file for Windows, just like the java-included ZIP file but without the JRE. (This makes it much smaller.)
• jes-5.0b1-testkit.zip: A package containing the JES test suite and demos, to use for testing.

JES 5.0 alpha 5

Development snapshot of JES 5.0. (The final release of JES 5.0 is expected in August 2014.)

• Supervisor: Mark Guzdial
• Primary Developer: Matthew Frazier
• Contributors: Christine Alvarado, Stephen Bryant

Changes in Alpha 5

• Added the ability to open .py files in JES from the system file manager, when installed via the Windows installer package, the Mac OS X .app package, or the add-to-menu.sh script included in the Linux distribution.
• Added the ability to open specific files at startup by passing their name on the command line. (This was made possible on Windows by a new .exe pre-launcher, contributed by Stephen Bryant.)
• Bundled a copy of jMusic with JES. There is no documentation or media API integration yet, but there is a demo program.
• Added "Stop" buttons to dialog boxes generated by the requestType/showType function families. This allows students to stop infinite loops involving dialog boxes.
• Connected the "Preferences" and "Quit" items in the "JES" application menu on OS X to the corresponding functions in the other menus.
• Limited the font size to the range 8..72 when loading the configuration file, to prevent a font size of 0 from making the text invisible.
• Set the JES source file encoding to UTF-8, universally.
• Fixed some encoding issues related to Windows builds of JES.
• Fixed a warning that occurred when generating Javadocs.
• Updated the documentation for printNow to indicate that it is no longer necessary.

The full changelog from JES 4.3 is given in jes/help/JESChangelog.txt.

Available Downloads

• jes-5.0a5-linux.tar.gz: A .tar.gz file for Linux or UNIX. Just unpack it and run jes.sh.
• jes-5.0a5-macosx.zip: A .zip file which contains a JES.app package for Mac OS X. It should work on any Mac of any CPU architecture.
• jes-5.0a5-windows.exe: An .exe file that installes JES on a Windows system. It includes a Java Runtime Environment, which will be installed automatically if necessary.
• jes-5.0a5-windows-java-included.zip: A .zip file for Windows, including a Java Runtime Environment for JES. Just unzip it and double-click JES.exe.
• jes-5.0a5-windows-java-required.zip: A .zip file for Windows, just like the java-included ZIP file but without the JRE. (This makes it much smaller.)
• jes-5.0a5-testkit.zip: A package containing the JES test suite and demos, to use for testing.

JES 5.0 alpha 4

Development snapshot of JES 5.0. (The final release of JES 5.0 is expected in August 2014.)

• Supervisor: Mark Guzdial
• Primary Developer: Matthew Frazier
• Contributors: Christine Alvarado

Changes in Alpha 4

• Made the entire JES startup sequence threadsafe.
• Renamed setLibPath to addLibPath (leaving behind a compatibility alias).
• Fixed error messages that display during load.
• Fixed the insertion point disappearing from the Command Window occasionally (such as when pickAFile() is called).
• Fixed bug that prevented the skins of the Watcher and Help panels from changing with the rest of the application.
• Fixed newlines sometimes not appearing when return values are printed.
• Adjusted appearance of the Watcher to look nice on non-Metal skins.
• Added new themes for the Command Window.
• Added a --jython switch to JESstartup that invokes Jython directly.
• Added a JESEnvironment.{sh,bat} file that can be used to customize the Java VM.
• Added the OS version to the version message.
• Rewrote the about, introduction, and bug report dialogs to have more information.
• Cleaned up the session wraparound setting, so that the code lives in Pixel instead of JESConfig.
• Removed a bunch of old, unused Python files.

The full changelog from JES 4.3 is given in jes/help/JESChangelog.txt.

Available Downloads

• jes-5.0a4-linux.tar.gz: A .tar.gz file for Linux or UNIX. Just unpack it and run jes.sh.
• jes-5.0a4-macosx.zip: A .zip file which contains a JES.app package for Mac OS X. It should work on any Mac of any CPU architecture.
• jes-5.0a4-windows.exe: An .exe file that installes JES on a Windows system. It includes a Java Runtime Environment, which will be installed automatically if necessary.
• jes-5.0a4-windows-java-included.zip: A .zip file for Windows, including a Java Runtime Environment for JES. Just unzip it and double-click JES.exe.
• jes-5.0a4-windows-java-required.zip: A .zip file for Windows, just like the java-included ZIP file but without the JRE. (This makes it much smaller.)
• jes-5.0a4-testkit.zip: A package containing the JES test suite and demos, to use for testing.

JES 5.0 alpha 3

Development snapshot of JES 5.0. (The final release of JES 5.0 is expected in August 2014.)

• Supervisor: Mark Guzdial
• Primary Developer: Matthew Frazier
• Contributors: Christine Alvarado

Changes in Alpha 3

• Added signatures to JAR files.
• Fixed bug where JES predefined functions were not highlighted.
• Fixed bug that kept "UNLOADED" in the status bar, even after loading.
• Fixed bug where the cursor disappeared after clicking "Load."

The full changelog from JES 4.3 is given in jes/help/JESChangelog.txt.

Available Downloads

• jes-5.0a3-linux.tar.gz: A .tar.gz file for Linux or UNIX. Just unpack it and run jes.sh.
• jes-5.0a3-macosx.zip: A .zip file which contains a JES.app package for Mac OS X. It should work on any Mac of any CPU architecture.
• jes-5.0a3-windows.exe: An .exe file that installes JES on a Windows system. It includes a Java Runtime Environment, which will be installed automatically if necessary.
• jes-5.0a3-windows-java-included.zip: A .zip file for Windows, including a Java Runtime Environment for JES. Just unzip it and double-click JES.exe.
• jes-5.0a3-windows-java-required.zip: A .zip file for Windows, just like the java-included ZIP file but without the JRE. (This makes it much smaller.)
• jes-5.0a3-testkit.zip: A package containing the JES test suite and demos, to use for testing.

JES 4.3 (legacy)

This version of JES was released in 2009. It's recommended that all users upgrade to JES 5.0 if they can.