I've been eyeing Beanshell for some time now. It's a very straightforward scripting language for Java. Its syntax is about what you would expect if I said, "Java with optional types and no need to pre-declare variables." So, a Java programmer probably needs all of about thirty seconds to understand the language.

What I didn't expect was how quickly I could integrate it into my applications. Here's an example. I've got a Swing desktop application for which I wanted to add a small command shell pane. I spent about an hour working with Swing's JTextArea and rolling my own parser. It was late at night and I was short on bright ideas. Finally, about the time I realized I was going to need variables and flow control, I pulled the emergency stop cord and backed up.

After downloading the full beanshell JAR file (about 280K) and adding it to my build path, all I had to do was this: 

  
JConsole console = new JConsole();   
frame.getContentPane().add(new JScrollPane(console), BorderLayout.SOUTH);  
Interpreter interpreter = new Interpreter(console);   
new Thread(interpreter).start();

Those four lines of code are literally all that is needed to get a beanshell prompt running inside of your application. From the prompt, you have access to every class and method within your application. If you've got some kind of object registry or namespace, or any kind of Singletons, then you'll also have access to real object instances.

Beanshell has a built-in command called "desktop()". The one line will launch a Smalltalk-style IDE, with class browser and interpreter window. This desktop is still part of your application's JVM. It lacks most of the power of Smalltalk's library, which evolved together with the workspace to support highly dynamic programming. Nevertheless, the beanshell desktop retains the immediacy of working in Smalltalk.

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