pip install –user

Problem
When we install something with pip, usually we do a “sudo pip install pkg_name“. However, there are some problems with this approach. First, you need root privileges. Second, it installs the package globally, which can cause conflicts in the system. Is there a way to install something with pip locally?

Solution
The good news is that you can install a package with pip locally too. Under Linux the destination folder by default is ~/.local . Add the following line to the end of your ~/.bashrc :

export PATH=~/.local/bin:$PATH

Then install the package locally. For instance, let’s install pipenv:

$ pip install pipenv --user

Open a new terminal (thus ~/.bashrc is read), and launch pipenv. It should be available. Let’s check where it is:

$ which pipenv
/home/jabba/.local/bin/pipenv

pynt: a lightweight build tool, written in Python

Problem
I mainly work under Linux and when I write a Python program, I don’t care if it runs on other platforms or not. Does it work for me? Good :) So far I haven’t really used any build tools. If I needed something, I solved it with a Bash script.

However, a few weeks ago I started to work on a larger side project (JiVE Image Viewer) and I wanted to make it portable from the beginning. Beside Linux, it must also work on Windows (on Mac I couldn’t try it).

Now, if I want to automate some build task (e.g. creating a standalone executable from the project), a Bash script is not enough as it doesn’t run under Windows. Should I write the same thing in a .bat file? Hell, no! Should I install Cygwin on all my Windows machines? No way! It’s time to start using a build tool. The time has finally come.

Solution
There are tons of build tools. I wanted something very simple with which I can do some basic tasks: run an external command, create a directory, delete a directory, move a file, move a directory, etc. As I am most productive in Python, I wanted a build tool that I can program in pure Python. And I wanted something simple that I can start using right away without reading tons of docs.

And this is how I found pynt. Some of its features:

• “easy to learn
• build tasks are just python funtions
• manages dependencies between tasks
• automatically generates a command line interface
• supports python 2.7 and python 3.x” (source)

Just create a file called build.py in your project’s root folder and invoke the build tool with the command “pynt“.

My project is in a virtual environment. First I installed pynt in the virt. env.:

$ pip install pynt

Here you can find an example that I wrote for JiVE.

Update (20180628)
I had a little contribution to the project: https://github.com/rags/pynt/pull/17. If the name of a task starts with an underscore, then it’s a hidden task, thus it won’t appear in the auto-generated docs. This way you can easily hide sub-tasks.

Convert a nested OrderedDict to normal dict

Problem
You have a nested OrderedDict object and you want to convert it to a normal dict.

Today I was playing with the configparser module. It reads an .ini file and builds a dict-like object. However, I prefer normal dict objects. With a configparser object’s “._sections” you can access the underlying dictionary object, but it’s a nested OrderedDict object.

Example:

; preferences.ini

[GENERAL]
onekey = "value in some words"

[SETTINGS]
resolution = '1024 x 768'

import configparser
from pprint import pprint

config = configparser.ConfigParser()
config.read("preferences.ini")
pprint(config._sections)

Sample output:

OrderedDict([('GENERAL', OrderedDict([('onekey', '"value in some words"')])),
             ('SETTINGS', OrderedDict([('resolution', "'1024 x 768'")]))])

Solution
JSON to the rescue! Convert the nested OrderedDict to json, thus you lose the order. Then, convert the json back to a dictionary. Voilá, you have a plain dict object.

    def to_dict(self, config):
        """
        Nested OrderedDict to normal dict.
        """
        return json.loads(json.dumps(config))

Output:

{'GENERAL': {'onekey': '"value in some words"'},
 'SETTINGS': {'resolution': "'1024 x 768'"}}

As you can see, quotes around string values are kept by configparser. If you want to remove them, see my previous post.

I found this solution here @ SO.

Using ConfigParser, read an .ini file to a dict and remove quotes around string values

Problem
In Python you can read .ini files easily with the configparser module.

An .ini file looks like this:

[OPTIONS]
name = Jabba

As you can see, string values are not quoted. However, for me it looks lame. IMO a string must be between quotes or apostrophes. With quotes you can also add whitespace characters to the beginning or the end of a string. So I prefer writing this:

[OPTIONS]
name = "Jabba"

But now quotes become part of the string. If you read it with configparser, the value of name is '"Jabba"' instead of 'Jabba'.

Solution
When using configparser, it builds a dict-like object. I prefer to work with normal dictionaries. So first I read the .ini file, then convert the configparser object to dict, and finally I remove quotes (or apostrophes) from string values. Here is my solution:

preferences.ini

[GENERAL]
onekey = "value in some words"

[SETTINGS]
resolution = '1024 x 768'

example.py

#!/usr/bin/env python3

from pprint import pprint
import preferences

prefs = preferences.Preferences("preferences.ini")
d = prefs.as_dict()
pprint(d)

preferences.py

import sys
import configparser
import json
from pprint import pprint

def remove_quotes(original):
    d = original.copy()
    for key, value in d.items():
        if isinstance(value, str):
            s = d[key]
            if s.startswith(('"', "'")):
                s = s[1:]
            if s.endswith(('"', "'")):
                s = s[:-1]
            d[key] = s
            # print(f"string found: {s}")
        if isinstance(value, dict):
            d[key] = remove_quotes(value)
    #
    return d

class Preferences:
    def __init__(self, preferences_ini):
        self.preferences_ini = preferences_ini

        self.config = configparser.ConfigParser()
        self.config.read(preferences_ini)

        self.d = self.to_dict(self.config._sections)

    def as_dict(self):
        return self.d

    def to_dict(self, config):
        """
        Nested OrderedDict to normal dict.
        Also, remove the annoying quotes (apostrophes) from around string values.
        """
        d = json.loads(json.dumps(config))
        d = remove_quotes(d)
        return d

The line d = remove_quotes(d) is responsible for removing the quotes. Comment / uncomment this line to see the difference.

Output:

$ ./example.py

{'GENERAL': {'onekey': 'value in some words'},
 'SETTINGS': {'resolution': '1024 x 768'}}

I also posted this to SO (link here).

JiVE: A general purpose, cross-platform image viewer with some built-in NSFW support, written in Python 3.6 using PyQt5

In the past 2-3 weeks I’ve been working on a general purpose, cross-platform image viewer that has some built-in NSFW support. It’s called JiVE and it’s in Python 3.6 using PyQt5. A unique feature of JiVE is that it allows you to browse online images just as if they were local images.

You can find it on GitHub: https://github.com/jabbalaci/JiVE-Image-Viewer. I also wrote a detailed documentation.

Screenshots

In action:

Selecting an NSFW subreddit:

Read the docs for more info.