The Player's Handbook

The Player's Handbook

So you decided to play with us, that's insanely great!

If you are in just for fun, the first 2 steps below will be enough for the time being and you can safely skip all the other steps.

However, if you intend to take the full learning curve and eventually publish your work or submit it to the project, please keep on reading.

Selection

• The first step is to decide on a Unix command to reimplement in Python 3.x.
• You can use our suggested list in the front page, pick one from our Monster Manual, or just go for any other one (even from other operating systems!) that fits your whims and fancies.
• If you have selected a POSIX command, you can start implementing the POSIX.1 version instead of the latest version available in your favourite Operating System. POSIX versions are simpler and more testing oriented.

Coding

• If you are starting with Python & Unix, check our tutorials first.
• Aim to be compliant with the PEP 8 Style Guide for Python Code.
  • Though it's a good read, you can also check your code compliance with the pylint utility, and learn as you go.
• Do your unit tests:
  • There you can use our very simple debugging and logging tutorial, which we suggest.
  • Or the more complex Python unit testing library or the third party pytest framework (check this article for advocacy on this later one).
• Last but not least, try to follow the Pythonic way, that is to say using Python specific code constructs.

As Mando says

This is the way!

Tests

Back to back testing:

• Provide a script for testing the new command against the installed one (more on this soon).

Portability testing:

• Also test execution under Windows for the portability goal.

Documentation

• Write some documentation in a README.md file (in GitHub markdown language) or manual page (in the newer mdoc or classical man languages).

Installation

• Write an installation script or Makefile (check this excellent tutorial).

Source code publication

• Select an OSI-approved Open Source License and put it in a License file.
• Eventually use Black, "The Uncompromising Code Formatter" utility, to format your code in a conventional way.
• Create a GitHUb account

Either:

1. Easy

• Create a repository
• Link your command to the project with the pnu-project topic

2. Medium

• Clone this repository, make your changes and submit them for inclusion here if you prefer this over the pnu-project GitHub topic linking.

Package publication

• Eventually, make a pip package for your entry.

Maintenance