On a very high level, we can build a Python framework in Apex by having a Python binding on our high level API that generates Jython operators with the business logic written by users in Python, along with existing connectors.
David On Sep 15, 2016 11:00 PM, "Chinmay Kolhatkar" <chin...@datatorrent.com> wrote: > Strongly +1 on this. One thing that proves this is useful for Apex is > hadoop streaming where python is used write map-reduce jobs. This not only > will increase the reach in development world but also would be appealing to > administrators to write an app as they are usually aware of python. > > > Few suggestions (not in specific order): > 1. As a part of supporting python execution in operator code, we should > provide a complete lifecycle of an operator to be specified from python. > > 2. I would personally not worry about providing python binding for low > level apex client APIs like addOperator, addStream etc... If one has to do > it, I think its best to use JAVA api as the most power of those low level > APIs can be leveraged there. > > 3. For client APIs, I would rather suggest we focus on high level APIs like > apex stream API (malhar-stream). We should provide a complete python > binding for them. Python is very useful when it comes to functional > programming and Stream API provide exactly that. > > 4. Thinking very high level, I don't think we need any change in apex-core > for this. This could be another project in malhar itself. There are python > libraries like py4j or pyjnius or JPype which allows to access Java objects > from python. > Basically, we just need to establish a right bridge betweeen java and > python VM. We need to be thoughtful about performance as these bridges > across programming languages are costly. > > 5. We need to decide on how the code execution will look like on this. For > eg., should a py file be an alternative to Application.java in the package? > This means, the starting point is apex cli i.e. java. Hence instead of > finding classes implementing StreamingApplication, apexcli needs to find py > file which defines definition of DAG. > OR should the flow start with "__main__" of python file and end up in Java? > > 6. This might be too early, but it important to emphasis that we need to > plan for writing examples and documentation for python binding. > > -Chinmay. > > > > On Fri, Sep 16, 2016 at 2:36 AM, Thomas Weise <t...@apache.org> wrote: > > > Hi, > > > > Python (not Jython) seems to be a popular language and frequently used > for > > data analysis, especially where flexibility matters. It has a > comprehensive > > library and it is generally considered low barrier to entry. I have also > > seen Python used in critical back-end components, although that's > probably > > not very common? > > > > I think Python support could potentially expand the user base for Apex. > > There are 2 main areas that can be considered: > > > > 1) Support to execute Python code through an operator > > 2) A client API that lets users construct pipelines in Python > > > > The former can exist without the latter. And it would enable users to > > leverage existing code that otherwise would have to be rewritten in a JVM > > language. The engine could ship scripts/packages so they are > automatically > > distributed on the cluster. > > > > A useful client API probably requires back-end support for lambda > functions > > and more complex UDFs. > > > > Would be great to get some feedback, especially from those that have > > experience with Python, on how an integration could potentially open up > new > > use cases for Apex. > > > > Thanks, > > Thomas > > >
