Java to Python (j2p)

This tool can translate java programs into python programs. This is a complex mechanism and still experimental/in development. This documentation is very incomplete. This code is not yet published on the artifactory.

Some features:

• both single-file as multi-file projects
• translates calls to external libraries
• pluggable translators supporting calls to external liraries
• can generate pip-installable zip file that automatically (pip) installs all required dependencies.
• Another tool provided by us supports running these python zip files from java.
• Handles java method overloading using the @dispatch annotation from multipledispatch. If your java code uses overloading, your python code will require multipledispatch installed

The repo contains the translator in the module named "core". The other modules, ending with "-t", are translator plug-ins described below.

Internal mechanism

Translation is done on a per-java-file basis.

There are two main translation components in the core:

1. The translator that parses java file with ​Javaparser and creates equivalent python code.
2. per-java-class translators that know how to translate all calls to any java class method or field into equivalent python code. This code is using introspection and assumes all used java classes are available, either through libraries or from the java compiler.

(1) generic and used for all java programs. It is currently pretty complete but details will be filled in over time as the need arises to support more java syntax.

(2) is currently very partial. The reason is that there are a huge number of java classes and even more 3rd party libraries, and almost every field and function in it will need a specialized translator. This will grow slowly over time as needed.

Usage

Overriding the translation

Comments can contain python code to override the automatic code, if the block starts with #PY. This code replaces the entire object (if/case/while block; statement) that follows the comment.

Python has strict requirements regarding indentation. To make this possible, we need to be strict about indentation as well. In a single line python comment, the code must look exactly like

 //#PY single_python_line 

Note the single whitespace after the #PY. Your code starts after this single whitespace.

In a multi line comment the code must look exactly like

/*#PY
 * codeline1
 * codeline2
 * ...
 */

Your code lines each start with "* ", note the whitespace after the star. You are free to indent before the "*".

Your code is automatically indented to the level needed at the insertion place in the code.

Code must be placed in either a standard block comment or a single line comment. Starting a javadoc with #PY is not allowed. This is to encourage proper use of javadoc.

A comment block overrides also annotations.

If the code block contains no code at all, it is translated as pass, to ensure that the code is a proper statement.

Translation modules

J2P has a modular translation mechanism. A translation module can be created separately and plugged in as needed, to add support for translating libraries. Also this allows to change the translation process, for instance to use another python library for the translation.

A number of translation modules are already available

module	what it translates	details	limitations
jackson-t	jackson serialization annotations	translates jackson to pyson annotations that look very similar to jackson	Covers what we need for translation of GeniusWeb
junit-t	junit calls assertTrue,assertEquals		Very limited, no support yet for junit annotations
tudutils-t	translates calls to utilities package		limited, currently mainly to support parts of immutablelist

Resulting file

FAQs

Question	Explanation
I'm getting "No translator found for X". But X is a class that I'm trying to translate	The java files you are trying to translate are probably not compiled by the java compiler. When the translator finds a method call, it needs the compiled java to determine the proper signature (function name and arguments).