T
Tim Daneliuk
'tconfpy' 1.184 is released and available at:
http://www.tundraware.com/Software/tconfpy/
The last public release was 1.181 on 4/24/2004
(Sorry for two announcements in three days, but, a last minute feature
snuck in. Barring bugs, this should be it for a while ...)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
This version implements "Variable Templates" which have all manner of
interesting applications, not the least of which is using 'tconfpy'
as a component for building data validation tools.
This version also provides a new API option, 'ReturnPredefs' which
allows the programmer request that the parser not return internal
"predefined" variables in the final symbol table.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
'tconfpy' is an advanced configuration file parser and validator for
Python programs. By using 'tconfpy', Python programmers can provide
their users with an external configuration file for setting program
options, defining defaults, and so on. 'tconfpy' offloads the
responsibility for parsing and validating a configuration file from
the main application. The Python programmer need only deal
with the results and any errors or warnings generated during the
parsing process.
'tconfpy' recognizes a rich configuration language and provides a
number of sophisticated programming features including:
- The ability to breakup large configurations into smaller pieces
via the '.include' directive.
- Support for string substitution and concatenation throughout the
configuration file via string variables. Variables may be
locally declared, a reference to a symbol already in the
symbol table, or a reference to an environment variable.
- A complete set of conditional directives for selective
processing of configuration options. Both existential ("If
variable exists ...") and comparison ("if string equals/does not
equal string ...") forms are provided, as is an '.else'
directive.
- The ability to instantiate program options prior to reading a
configuration file and make them mandatory by declaring those
options as Read-Only.
- Optional type validation to ensure that a user enters a value
appropriate for boolean, integer, floating point, string, or
complex data.
- Optional value validation to ensure that a configuration option
is either within a specified range or one of an enumerated set
of possible values. For configuration options which are string
types, 'tconfpy', can optionally specify min/max string lengths
and enumerate a set of legitimate regular expressions that the
string must match.
- The ability to define an arbitrary number of lexical namespaces.
- The ability to use the various features of 'tconfpy' as a pre-
processor for any other text (including source code for other
programming languages and Python itself) via the '.literal'
directive.
- The ability to "template" classes of variables, thereby predefining
the type and value restrictions for such variables. This makes
'tconfpy' useful as a building block for data validation tools.
- An optional debug capability which returns detailed information
about each line parsed.
- Includes a test driver program for learning how to program with
'tconfpy' and for debugging and testing your own configuration
files.
- Comes with approximately 40 pages of documentation including a
Programmer's API Reference and a User's Guide to the 'tconfpy'
configuration language. Documentation is provided in several
formats including Unix 'man', Plain Text, html, pdf, and
Postscript.
'tconfpy' is a Pure Python module and is platform-independent.
It should work identically on any platform on which Python runs.
http://www.tundraware.com/Software/tconfpy/
The last public release was 1.181 on 4/24/2004
(Sorry for two announcements in three days, but, a last minute feature
snuck in. Barring bugs, this should be it for a while ...)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
This version implements "Variable Templates" which have all manner of
interesting applications, not the least of which is using 'tconfpy'
as a component for building data validation tools.
This version also provides a new API option, 'ReturnPredefs' which
allows the programmer request that the parser not return internal
"predefined" variables in the final symbol table.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
'tconfpy' is an advanced configuration file parser and validator for
Python programs. By using 'tconfpy', Python programmers can provide
their users with an external configuration file for setting program
options, defining defaults, and so on. 'tconfpy' offloads the
responsibility for parsing and validating a configuration file from
the main application. The Python programmer need only deal
with the results and any errors or warnings generated during the
parsing process.
'tconfpy' recognizes a rich configuration language and provides a
number of sophisticated programming features including:
- The ability to breakup large configurations into smaller pieces
via the '.include' directive.
- Support for string substitution and concatenation throughout the
configuration file via string variables. Variables may be
locally declared, a reference to a symbol already in the
symbol table, or a reference to an environment variable.
- A complete set of conditional directives for selective
processing of configuration options. Both existential ("If
variable exists ...") and comparison ("if string equals/does not
equal string ...") forms are provided, as is an '.else'
directive.
- The ability to instantiate program options prior to reading a
configuration file and make them mandatory by declaring those
options as Read-Only.
- Optional type validation to ensure that a user enters a value
appropriate for boolean, integer, floating point, string, or
complex data.
- Optional value validation to ensure that a configuration option
is either within a specified range or one of an enumerated set
of possible values. For configuration options which are string
types, 'tconfpy', can optionally specify min/max string lengths
and enumerate a set of legitimate regular expressions that the
string must match.
- The ability to define an arbitrary number of lexical namespaces.
- The ability to use the various features of 'tconfpy' as a pre-
processor for any other text (including source code for other
programming languages and Python itself) via the '.literal'
directive.
- The ability to "template" classes of variables, thereby predefining
the type and value restrictions for such variables. This makes
'tconfpy' useful as a building block for data validation tools.
- An optional debug capability which returns detailed information
about each line parsed.
- Includes a test driver program for learning how to program with
'tconfpy' and for debugging and testing your own configuration
files.
- Comes with approximately 40 pages of documentation including a
Programmer's API Reference and a User's Guide to the 'tconfpy'
configuration language. Documentation is provided in several
formats including Unix 'man', Plain Text, html, pdf, and
Postscript.
'tconfpy' is a Pure Python module and is platform-independent.
It should work identically on any platform on which Python runs.