I need to rewrite Stingray Reader. This project handles a certain amount of file processing using a schema to assure the Logical Layout is understood. It handles several common Physical Formats:

• CSV files where the format is extended by the various dialects options.
• COBOL files in ASCII or EBCDIC.

The …

I made some bad decisions when I wrote this a few years ago: https://github.com/slott56/Stingray-Reader. Really bad. And. Recently, I've burdened myself with conflicting goals. Ugh.

I need to upgrade to Python 3.8, and add type hints. This exposed somes badness.

See {filename/blog/2020/01 …

See {filename}/blog/2020/01/2020_01_26-stingrayreader_upgrade.rst

This drifted into some serious rethinking of bad design decisions. (If someone else did this, I'd call it weak, and suggest improvements. It was me. It was bad. I'm a bad programmer and I feel bad about it.)

An an example, there's this …

some_data = {name: source[name] for name in the_names}
the_object = SomeClass(**some_data)

Or "When is it time to move?"

I've got https://sourceforge.net/projects/stingrayreader/ which has been on SourceForge since forever.

Really since about 2014. Not that long. But. Maybe long enough?

The velocity of change is relatively slow.

However.

(And this is a big however.) SourceForge seems kind of …

A common way to save persistent, important data is a spreadsheet. It provides a handy, potentially normalized store that's readily accessible with minimal tooling. It has a UI usable by people with a spectrum of skills.

Sadly.

There's a core conflict:

• The advantages of spreadsheets-as-database are numerous.
• The disadvantage is …

See this short discussion on a Stingray Reader feature:

https://sourceforge.net/p/stingrayreader/discussion/COBOL/thread/d2132851/?limit=25#2a3a

This turned into an exercise in pure TDD.

<rant>

I'm not a fan of applying TDD in a strict, death-march fashion.

I see the comments on Stack Overflow that …

We'll be digging into Mastering Object-Oriented Python. Chapter 17, specifically.

We'll also be looking at a big refactoring of the Stingray Schema-Based File Reader.

We can identify three species of packages.

One common design is a Simple Package. A directory with an empty __init__.py file. This package name becomes …

• Some small improvements to the COBOL DDE parsing.
• A sensible demo program that shows how to read COBOL files.
• A complete rewrite to Python3.3.
• Support for more COBOL syntax.
• Support for Occurs Depending On
• Support for RECFM=F, RECFM=V and RECFM=VB …

Just updated the Stingray Reader. There was an egregious error (and a missing test case). I fixed the error, but didn't add a test case to cover the problem. It's simple laziness. TDD is quite clear on how to tackle this kind of thing. Write the missing test case (which …