pymetacode¶

A Python package helping to write and maintain Python packages.

Code that writes code – yes, that’s correct. Automating the boring stuff, one could say, or helping to focus on the creative part of programming. In any case, the idea for this package stems from experience with a couple of Python projects, and as such it is pretty opinionated, focussing on personal needs regarding structure and layout. Nevertheless, it tries to be as user-friendly as possible, coming with an intuitive command-line interface (CLI).

Want to get an idea? Here you go. Creating a new package would be a two-step process:

Write a configuration file for your new package (and afterwards fill it with sensible content)

pymeta write config to mypackage_config.yaml

Create the basic Python package structure for your package.

pymeta create package from mypackage_config.yaml

Once you have your package structure, you can add modules, classes, and functions to your package from within the package’s root directory at any time:

pymeta add module mymodule
pymeta add class MyClass to mymodule
pymeta add function my_function to mymodule

If you ever want to add a graphical user interface (GUI) to your project, this is (now) possible as well:

pymeta add gui
pymeta add window mysubwindow
pymeta add widget mywidget
pymeta add dialog mydialog

See Use cases for more examples. And now - happy coding!

Features¶

A list of features:

Create initial package structure (directory layout, files)
Add module, class, and function scaffolds to an existing project, including tests and API documentation
Add initial (Qt) GUI subpackage structure (directory layout, files)
Add (Qt) GUI window scaffolds to existing project, including tests and API documentation
Intuitive command-line interface (CLI)
Initialise git repository; automatically incrementing version number with each commit

And to make it even more convenient for users and future-proof:

Open source project written in Python (>= 3.7)
Developed fully test-driven
Extensive user and API documentation

Hint

Just in case you wondered: Yes, pymetacode is maintained using pymetacode itself.

Where to start¶

Users new to the pymetacode package should probably start at the beginning, those interested in more real-world examples may jump straight to the section explaining frequent use cases.

The API documentation is the definite source of information for developers, besides having a look at the source code.

Installation¶

To install the pymetacode package on your computer (sensibly within a Python virtual environment), open a terminal (activate your virtual environment), and type in the following:

pip install pymetacode

For more details, see the installation instructions.

License¶

This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the BSD License.