comparison docs/alternatives.rst @ 336:8aa71e8f1064

alternatives
author catherine@Drou
date Mon, 15 Feb 2010 22:07:37 -0500
parents
children 52ab96d4f179
comparison
equal deleted inserted replaced
335:f69211e2c570 336:8aa71e8f1064
1 ============================
2 Alternatives to cmd and cmd2
3 ============================
4
5 For programs that do not interact with the user in a continuous loop -
6 programs that simply accept a set of arguments from the command line, return
7 results, and do not keep the user within the program's environment - all
8 you need are sys_\ .argv (the command-line arguments) and optparse_
9 (for parsing UNIX-style options and flags).
10
11 .. _optparse: http://docs.python.org/library/optparse.html#module-optparse
12
13 .. _sys: http://docs.python.org/library/sys.html#module-sys
14
15 .. _curses: http://docs.python.org/library/curses.html#module-curses
16
17 .. _cmd: http://docs.python.org/library/cmd.html#module-cmd
18
19 The curses_ module produces applications that interact via a plaintext
20 terminal window, but are not limited to simple text input and output;
21 they can paint the screen with options that are selected from using the
22 cursor keys. However, programming a curses_-based application is not as
23 straightforward as using cmd_.
24
25 Several packages in PyPI enable interactive command-line applications
26 approximately similar in concept to cmd_ applications. None of them
27 share cmd2's close ties to cmd, but they may be worth investigating
28 nonetheless.
29
30 * CmdLoop_
31 * cly_
32 * CmDO_ (As of Feb. 2010, webpage is missing.)
33 * pycopia-CLI_
34
35 cmdln_, another package in PyPI, is an extension to cmd_ and, though it
36 doesn't retain full cmd_ compatibility, shares its basic structure with
37 cmd_.
38
39 .. _cmdln_ http://pypi.python.org/pypi/cmdln
40
41 .. _CmdLoop: http://pypi.python.org/pypi/CmdLoop
42
43 .. _cly: http://pypi.python.org/pypi/cly
44
45 .. _CmDO: http://pypi.python.org/pypi/CmDO/0.7
46
47 .. _pycopia-CLI: http://pypi.python.org/pypi/pycopia-CLI/1.0
48
49 I've found several alternatives to cmd in the Cheese Shop - CmdLoop, cly, CMdO, and pycopia. cly looks wonderful, but I haven't been able to get it working under Windows, and that's a show-stopper for many potential sqlpython users. In any case, none of the alternatives are based on cmd - they're written from scratch, which means that a cmd-based app would need complete rewriting to use them. I like sticking close to the Standard Library whenever possible. cmd2 lets you do that.
50