Club Projects for the DFW Pythoneers

Our club's approach to working together on projects is based on the principles of Extreme Programming, the four principles of which are:

• improve communication
• seek simplicity
• get feedback on how well you are doing
• always proceed with courage

The following is a roster of active projects.

Python Conference Talk Scheduler (Project Source Repository)

To store, manipulate and report on a schedule of talks at the next Python Conference, within a PostgreSQL database and using both web and non-web access mechanisms.

Taking a Ride on the D-BUS (Project Source Repository) Specific to Linux

To document and play with the D-BUS interprocess communications mechanism under Linux, and manipulate the hardware configuration of a system using the Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL) service that sits on the D-BUS. In my (Jeff Rush) case, I want to monitor and act on changes in the environment of my laptop, detecting network plugging and power management events.

Writing Gnome Applets in Python (Project Source Repository) Specific to Linux

To document and play with the writing of Gnome desktop applets in Python, in particular hooking them into the D-BUS / HAL interprocess communications mechanism so that they can monitor and respond to system and desktop events. Therefor this project has as a dependency the DBusProgramming project.

We are also gathering ideas for further Python Projects. See our ProposedPythonProjects.

For a consistent layout of project files within the source repository, and to fit in with common Python module redistribution practice, here are some guidelines.

  ProjectXYZZY/
    branches/   (branches of development that get merged in later)
    tags/       (snapshots of the project at specific points in time)
    trunk/      (distribution root and repository checkout point)
      bin/      (misc executable scripts that use the project)
      doc/      (project documentation files)
      dist/     (where builds of the project place distributable packages)
      LICENSE   (copy of licensing terms)
      README    (overview of project objectives and how to install)
      MANIFEST  (list of files to bundle up, built automatically the 1st time)
      setup.py  (Python distutils control file)
      xyzzy     (topmost Python module that gets placed under site-packages)
        __init__.py     (makes xyzzy a real Python module)
        submodule1/
          __init__.py
        submodule2/
          __init__.py
        test/           (unit tests for the overall project)
          __init__.py

Using this layout, we can create a distribution tarball (named "dist/ProjectXYZZY-1.0.tar.gz") for the project:

  % python setup.py sdist

And if we're running under MS Windows, we can produce an executable installer (named "dist/ProjectXYZZY-1.0.exe"):

  command> python setup.py bdist_wininst

And if we're running under an RPM-based Linux distribution, we can produce an RPM package (named "dist/ProjectXYZZY-1.0-1.rpm"):

  % python setup.py bdist_rpm