Command-line Applications
=========================

.. todo:: Explain "Command-line Applications"

Clint
-----

`clint <https://pypi.python.org/pypi/clint/>`_ is a Python module which is
filled with very useful tools for developing command-line applications.
It supports features such as; CLI colors and indents, simple and powerful
column printer, iterator based progress bars and implicit argument handling.

Click
-----

`click <http://click.pocoo.org/>`_ is an upcoming Python package for creating
command-line interfaces in a composable way with as little code as
possible. This “Command-line Interface Creation Kit” is highly
configurable but comes with good defaults out of the box.

docopt
------

`docopt <http://docopt.org/>`_ is a lightweight, highly Pythonic package that
allows creating command-line interfaces easily and intuitively, by parsing
POSIX-style usage instructions.

Plac
------

`Plac <https://pypi.python.org/pypi/plac>`_ is a simple wrapper
over the Python standard library `argparse <http://docs.python.org/2/library/argparse.html>`_,
which hides most of its complexity by using a declarative interface: the
argument parser is inferred rather than written down by imperatively. This
module targets especially unsophisticated users, programmers, sys-admins,
scientists and in general people writing throw-away scripts for themselves,
who choose to create a command-line interface because it is quick and simple.

Cliff
------

`Cliff <https://cliff.readthedocs.org/en/latest>`_  is a framework for
building command-line programs. It uses setuptools entry points to provide
subcommands, output formatters, and other extensions. The framework is meant
to be used to create multi-level commands such as subversion and git, where
the main program handles some basic argument parsing and then invokes a
sub-command to do the work.