boltons/docs/index.rst

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.. boltons documentation master file, created on Sat Mar 21 00:34:18 2015.
boltons
=======
*boltons should be builtins.*
**Boltons** is a set of pure-Python utilities in the same spirit as
the Python builtins, and yet conspicuously missing from the `the
standard library`_, including:
* Atomic file saving, bolted on with :mod:`fileutils`
* A highly-optimized :class:`OrderedMultiDict`, in :mod:`dictutils`
* Two types of ``PriorityQueue``, in :mod:`queueutils`
* "Chunked" and "windowed" iteration, among many others, in :mod:`iterutils`
* A full-featured ``TracebackInfo`` type, for representing stack
traces, in :mod:`tbutils`
And that's just a small selection. As of |today|, ``boltons`` is
|b_type_count| types and |b_func_count| functions spread across
|b_mod_count| modules.
.. appx 50, 75, and 23, respectively, as of initial docs writing
.. _the standard library: https://docs.python.org/2.7/library/index.html
Installation and Integration
----------------------------
Boltons can be added to a project in a few ways. There's the obvious one::
pip install boltons
Then dozens of boltons are just an import away::
from boltons.cacheutils import LRU
my_cache = LRU()
However, because of the nature of utilities, application developers
might want to consider other options. See the
:ref:`Integration <arch_integration>` section for more details.
Third-party packages
--------------------
The majority of boltons strive to be "good enough" for a wide range of
basic uses, leaving advanced use cases to specialized 3rd party
libraries. For example, no radical recommendations of NumPy inclusion
in the standard lib; the builtin number types and operations are
great! Built-in support for imaginary numbers for goodness sake!
Gaps
----
Found something missing in the standard library that should be in
``boltons``? First, take a moment to read the very brief
:doc:`architecture` statement to make sure the functionality would be
a good fit.
Then, if you are very motivated, submit `a Pull
Request`_. Otherwise, submit a feature request on `the Issues page`_,
and we will figure something out.
.. _a Pull Request: https://github.com/mahmoud/boltons/pulls
.. _the Issues Page: https://github.com/mahmoud/boltons/issues
Section listing
---------------
.. toctree::
:maxdepth: 2
architecture
cacheutils
debugutils
dictutils
fileutils
formatutils
funcutils
gcutils
iterutils
jsonutils
listutils
mboxutils
namedutils
queueutils
setutils
statsutils
strutils
tableutils
tbutils
timeutils
tzutils