Exercises - Packaging

Exercises - Packaging#

1) Package metadata#

In a number of places on our TestPyPI webpage, it says that no project description was provided TestPyPi

How could we edit our setup.py file to include a description?

What other metadata would you add?

Hint: The setup() args documentation might be useful.

2) Separating requirements#

As well as requirements_docs.txt, developers often create a requirements_dev.txt file to list packages that are not needed by the package’s users, but are required for its development and testing. Pull pytest out of requirements.txt and put it in a new requirements_dev.txt file.

3) Software review#

The Journal of Open Source Software has a checklist that reviewers must follow when assessing a submitted software paper. Run through the checklist (skipping the criteria related to the software paper) and see how the Zipf’s Law package would rate on each criteria.

4) Packaging quotations#

Each chapter in this book opens with a quote from the British author Terry Pratchett. This script quotes.py contains a function random_quote which prints a random Pratchett quote:

import random


quote_list = ["It's still magic even if you know how it's done.",
              "Everything starts somewhere, "\
              "though many physicists disagree.",
              "Ninety percent of most magic merely consists "\
              "of knowing one extra fact.",
              "Wisdom comes from experience. "\
              "Experience is often a result of lack of wisdom.",
              "There isn't a way things should be. "\
              "There's just what happens, and what we do.",
              "Multiple exclamation marks are a sure sign "\
              "of a diseased mind.",
              "+++ Divide By Cucumber Error. "\
              "Please Reinstall Universe And Reboot +++",
              "It's got three keyboards and a hundred extra "\
              "knobs, including twelve with ‘?' on them.",
             ]


def random_quote():
    """Print a random Pratchett quote."""
    print(random.choice(quote_list))

Create a new conda development environment called pratchett and use pip to install a new package called pratchett into that environment. The package should contain quotes.py, and once the package has been installed the user should be able to run:

from pratchett import quotes


quotes.random_quote()
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