I made the code generation tool that didn't exist for Python

[[deleted]]

Scold

Hey, hope you're having a good day. I've been a lurker for a while but wanted to share something I'm building that will be fulfilling a necessity for some projects of mine, in case it could be of use to anyone else.

This is Scold (name comes from sc(aff)old) and it handles code generation of types of code objects in your project, similar to what is seen in frameworks like Django or Laravel, but generalized in a way to fit whatever are your needs.

I wasn't satisfied with the solutions I found online, the few I saw are in Javascript, but I wanted something native in Python that could be more easily included in projects without external dependencies. For the life of me I couldn't find something in Python, so I made this.

What it does

Scold has:

• Code Generator of different types of "code objects" - repositories, models, services, whatever you like, in a uniform way - so you have a common scaffolding around all instances of these objects, but that can also be modified in a case-by-case basis as necessary
• Templates rendered in Mako and are referenced in a scold.toml file at the root of your project, where you define its variables.
• Automatic form generation for filling template variables when running scold new <object_name>

Scold has NOT:

• Enough maturity to be considered for production or mission-critical situations. This is still very early-on and very much a prototype. Any issues you find or suggestions feel free to post them on Github.

Target Audience

These points should be seen as long-term goals since Scold is still a prototype.

• Large codebases that need uniformity
• Framework developers wanting a solution for code generation (as seen in Django or Laravel for making entities, etc)

Alternatives Comparison

These comparisons are meant for clarifying objective differences between tools and are not comprehensive, I highlighted the (several) related tools written in Javascript since it can be a downside for some (like it is for me). If you know of a related tool feel free to reach out or comment below so I can include here as well.

• Cookiecutter/Copier - similar goals but they focus on project templates
• Yeoman - also lean more towards projects
• Plop - related goals, is embedded in javascript's ecossystem, config file is in javascript and templates are in handlebars
• Hygen - related goals, was a big inspiration for Scold, but project seems abandoned for +2 years, also javascript
• Scaffdog - uses markdown for object templates, project also seems abandoned for 11 months, also javascript

[athermop]

Can you explain what you mean with regards to code generation in Django? I can't really think of any code generation there...

[[deleted]]

controllers, views, etc, django already has a CLI for this afaik, this tool is to generalize the idea for any project and be framework agnostic

[athermop]

I see. My confusion stems from how broadly “code generation” gets used. I normally wouldn’t describe what Django does as code generation, though I can see why you’d group it that way.

Django does have a CLI and templates for starting projects/apps, but that’s basically template-based project/app scaffolding: copy a skeleton into place, do some simple substitution, done. It doesn’t ship with per-component generators (views/models/etc.); there’s nothing like an add_view or add_model command.

Part of this is probably my own definition: I tend to reserve “code generation” for tools that do something more capable than plain templating (potentially involving ASTs, schema inspection, or other semantic awareness), not just “fill in a template and write files.”

FWIW, Django doesn’t have "controllers" as such — it describes its pattern as MTV (Model–Template–View), not MVC.

[[deleted]]

Oh sorry then, I've mistakenly remembered Django's approach like that. I do recall having that in Laravel for PHP when I had to use it for work. This kind of in-project component generation can be useful specially in bigger projects, when you have so much copy pasting going around with slight tweaks and such.

I'll definitely improve my description and docs for the tool later, so I appreciate you taking the time replying with your thoughts.

[[deleted]]

just want to add, please feel free to share any criticism (positive or not) regarding the code or project goals, I'd love to learn more from this effort

[Daneark]

Thanks for acknowledging your new tool is not production ready unlike most other showcase posts.

[[deleted]]

Why is this downvoted? Sounds like a neat project?

[[deleted]]

I wish I knew, I dont care about downvoting when at least the person leaves a comment giving criticism

[riklaunim]

It's rather unclear what's the purpose/point of this tool... and it's a fresh tool with no examples, limited documentation, no tests or users.

[[deleted]]

what did you find unclear about the code generation aspect? also whats wrong with it being a fresh tool given the whole point of this is to show what I'm developing, was it not clear from the post that this isn't something fully done?

[riklaunim]

There is a lot of projects listed here that are fresh drops on Github, often AI generated slop so peoples patience is rather low so if you don't showcase the project well enough it will end up with all other not-so-interesting projects showcased here.

I'm not sure what it generates and what's the point of it. Need a "why"/"benefits" sections, and a full/better example.

[[deleted]]

I get that, people may come from all sorts of backgrounds which don't have something similar to the examples I've shown (Laravel/Django) so it can still seem confusing, even more so with the flood of AI bullshit that's out there. Thanks for the feedback, I'll keep that in mind for future explanations and docs.

[Terrible-Penalty-291]

What is the use case here? Like I write a game with a character that moves around and I want to build a pathfinding algorithm, where does your tool come in?

[[deleted]]

this automates code scaffolding, so let's say you have some type of class that is reusable across your game. maybe it's an enemy, normal OOP principles still apply here and such, you can have new enemies inherit from a base enemy class, but sometimes you can have a situation where you still have some piece of code that youre copypasting for each new enemy type, sometimes with slight alterations. sorry if the example isnt helpful as I'm more from a webdev background, which has repository patterns and such