Java and Scientific Python with JEPP? Nope

I have been watching Jython (formerly JPython) for quite some time, but most of the popular scientific/visualization libraries (like numpy and others) are really wrappers around C code and use the extensions specific for CPython, which Jython doesn't support. There is a desire for Jython to support the C extensions API but it hasn't happened yet. If it did support it, then I think Jython would be the ideal solution, even if does update slower than CPython. I saw JPype but it looks more like calling Java from Python, which is not quite what we want. Then I found JEPP, which is more like calling python from Java.

However, my experience with JEPP was horrible and non-working at all, at least on Windows x86-32. The initial warning sign was the lack of updates for awhile and the combination of the files being named with each permutation of java version and python version; it sounded like the PHP/Apache madness of matching 32/64 bit, Apache/PHP version, and C runtime version. It's like the native precompiled binary wheel of fortune where you spin it and just hope you get a set of compatible libraries. Here were the list of problems I ran into before I gave up:

• JEPP has a very minimal website and virtually no documentation, although it does look simple to use.
• JEPP's latest version supports only up to Python 2.6. I couldn't find an old pythonxy verison for Python 2.6, besides even if I did I'd never see an update again, so I couldn't use pythonxy.
• I tried the Python 2.6.4 installer from the JEPP site. The installer appeared to install all files but at the end the installer said that it failed to complete; however, everything seemed to be installed and I could run Python so I went with it. JEPP would actually run with this version and I sucessfully ran some trivial Python with the included console.py. However, I couldn't get numpy 1.6.1 to work even in the native Python; it complains the DLL was not found, so I didn't even try with JEPP.
• OK, so I uninstalled everything and tried the latest 2.6 ActiveState ActivePython (2.6.7.20). I installed Numpy 1.6.1 and it works. Then I install JEPP and try to use it in the same was as before, now the JVM segfaults calling some unicode string handling method while trying to run the script, so I couldn't run anything at all in JEPP.
• At this point I did a lot of searching the web and found no solace. In fact, I even found a stackoverflow post only a few months old saying that numpy and JEPP aren't compatible due to the sub-interpreters used by JEPP and the GIL.

After that experience, I didn't try to go any farther, even if I got it to work I would be stuck forever on an old Python and there would be many more C extensions to worry about.

In the end I am thinking it is not currently possible to run typical scientific Python code in the same process as JVM langauges. So the fallback would be either porting code, or running JVM and Python in two separate processes and using whatever IPC mechanism is the easiest (pipes, TCP, XML, etc.) with a very loosely bound interface. However, this makes it much more challenging (and much higher overhead) to build a single, integrated product and eliminates any ability for rapidly leveraging library code in JVM or Python for prototyping. I just heard about execnet, that might make the IPC easier, though.