Project Structure & Creating Packages

Today we will walk through creating a Python package from scratch, and walk through the following:

• Creating a github repository

  • Importance of adding a README
  • Importance of adding a LICENSE
  • Importance of adding a .gitignore

• Creating a Python package

  • importance of the __init__.py file
  • relative vs. absolute imports

• Creating and using test scripts

  • the tests directory
  • the nosetests command (py.test is also very nice)

• Making your package installable

  • the setup.py script
  • Python's install path

• Creating and using sphinx documentation

  • the doc directory
  • installing sphinx and using ReStructured Text
  • template: sphinx-quickstart or (better) copy shablona/doc template

• Continuous integration with Travis (if we have time)

  • the .travis.yml file

For more detail on all of this, you can refer back to the screen-capture video that I will create during the lecture.

More Information

• shablona: a template that contains much of what we went through above

• sphinx: Python documentation generator

• ReStructured Text Quick Reference: Learn how to format your docs

• Getting started with TravisCI: set up your repository for automatic testing