Python Engineering (7): Packaging — From pip install to PyPI

Sun, 24 Apr 2022 09:00:00 +0000

You wrote a useful utility. A colleague asks you to share it. You zip the folder and email it. They unzip it, run python main.py, and get ModuleNotFoundError because they do not have the dependencies. Then they install the dependencies, but the wrong versions. Then they have Python 3.8 and your f-string walrus operators do not parse.

Proper packaging eliminates all of this. With pip install your-tool, everything just works: correct dependencies, correct versions, and a clean CLI command.

Python Engineering (2): Project Structure — From Script to Package

Tue, 12 Apr 2022 09:00:00 +0000

Every project starts as a single file. You write main.py, it works, you add features, and one day you realize you have 1,500 lines in one file with functions that call other functions that depend on globals defined 800 lines above. The code works, but nobody (including future you) can understand it.

The jump from script to package is the first real engineering decision in a Python project. Get it right early, and testing, packaging, and deployment become easier. Get it wrong, and you’ll spend weeks untangling circular imports.

Packaging on Chen Kai Blog

Python Engineering (7): Packaging — From pip install to PyPI

Python Engineering (2): Project Structure — From Script to Package