NAME

mkproject - Rapid Project Templating

SYNOPSIS

mkproject.sh  name type cost 'description'

  where,

    name           Name of the project
    type           Programmnig lanuage (pl, py, sh ...)
    cost           What you wish to charge ($0.99 ...)
    'description'  A brief description of the project
                   Must be passed as a single argument

DESCRIPTION

mkproject is a way to quickly produce the code and documentation skeletons for a new project and to put these under CVS version control. It allows you to "brand" them with your own company and copyright information, as well specifying a standard license and pricing (if any).

The package comes with example templates for perl, python, and shell scripts. These contain some of the standard code you may want to use with every project.

Also included is an example standard for writing documentation using the Restructured Text markdown language.

Finally, a makefile is included to produce documentation and release packaging for your project. Documention is automatically produced in a wide variety of formats including html, PostScript, pdf, man, and plain text.

The package comes with a default Makefile usefull when creating a FreeBSD port of your project.

Because everything is template-driven, it is simple to customize the "standard" program and documentation templates to suit your needs. It is also quite straightforward to add support for additional languages.

For example, you almost certainly will want to change the licensing terms contained in ./common/license.txt. Once you've edited that file, every project you create with mkproject will have YOUR licensing terms in it.

REQUIRED ENVIRONMENT

mkproject requires certain tools to be properly installed and configured in order to operate properly. The majority of these have to do with producing documentation in various output formats from a Restructured Text source document:

CVS (You must have this properly configured for checkin, checkout.)

python 2.x

docutils

TeX/LaTex (A full implementaiton w/utilities.)

enscript

flip

You also need a modern version of make, like the one from the GNU projects. Old BSD type make utilities will not work.

BRANDING

Before using mkproject you have to customize it for your site-specific information. You do this by editing the .mkprojectrc file. This branding information is then passed on to every project you create thereafter.

CREATING A NEW PROJECT

Once you've edited .mkprojectrc, you a ready to create a new project. Recall that you do this:

mkproject.sh name type cost 'description`

This will generate a project under the PROJECTSDIR directory defined in .mkproject, and check them in to CVS.

MAKE OPTIONS

Projects created by mkproject are controlled by a makefile that allows you to do everything from produce documentation to package everything for release. The makefile supports the following major targets:

docs      Produce project documentation is a wide variety of formats
          including html, PostScript, pdf, man format, and plain text.

release   Create a release tarball in the project's ./Releases
          directory.  The tarball will contain both the name
          and version number of the project.

clean     Remove the intermediate files produced during
          the documentation process.

scrub     Remove (almost) everything, except for the makefile itself
          and the support/release directories.

init      Scrub the working directory and checkout the last
          committed copies from the CVS repository.

version   Display the current version of the project.

HOW TO ADD A NEW LANGUAGE

You can add new language support pretty trivially:

Edit mkproject.sh and add a stanza to the case statement near the top to define the INTERPERTER and LANGUAGE variables appropriately to the new language.
Create a new directory named after the language type - usually it is the suffix used to name source files in that language. Under this directory, place any files or templates you want as defaults for every project of that type. At a minimum, you must include a file named program.typesuffix. This should be your default skeleton code for that language. Do not include the initial header block - mkproject will insert it for you.
In common/makefile add an enscript (or other pretty printer program) stanza to pretty print your program code.
When writing your skeleton code and documentation files, there are a number of tokens you can use which mkproject will fill in when it creates a new project:

OTHER

You must have a reasonably current version of the shell interpreter installed.

BUGS AND MISFEATURES

None known as of this release.

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSING

For terms of use, see the mkproject-license.txt file in the program distribution.

If you install mkproject on a FreeBSD system using the 'ports' mechanism, you will also find this file in:

/usr/local/share/doc/mkproject

AUTHOR

Tim Daneliuk
mkproject@tundraware.com

DOCUMENT REVISION INFORMATION

$Id: tmkproject.rst,v 1.101 2012/06/01 21:44:35 tundra Exp $

You can find the latest version of this program at:

http://www.tundraware.com/Software/mkproject