critchecker

Critchecker is a Python 3.12+ tool that fetches all the critique batches and critiques posted by Critmas participants, counts the critiques' length, and stores the info in a CSV database.

Requirements

To run, critchecker needs tqdm and sundown. Installing the .whl file will take care of this for you.

Installation

To install critchecker, use pip and install the distributed .whl file as follows:

python -m pip install critchecker-X.Y.Z-py3-none-any.whl

The tool will then be available as critchecker or critchecker.exe, depending on your OS.

To avoid polluting your OS, you may opt to install critchecker to a virtual environment. Refer to your system's documentation to create one, then activate it and run the above command from within the venv.

Usage

You can view a brief usage message by running:

critchecker -h

The required parameters are the URL of the Critmas launch journal and the Critmas launch date, in the YYYY-MM-DD format. As such, an example invocation will be:

critchecker https://www.deviantart.com/beckykidus/journal/Critmas-2023-We-re-off-1005330829 2023-12-26

The CSV file path

You can force a specific path to be used in place of the default one for the CSV file. For example, to save the critique database in a file called report.csv in the current working directory, use:

critchecker -r "./report.csv" <url> <startdate>

The default location for the CSV file will be either $HOME/critmas.csv or C:\Users\<username>\critmas.csv, depending on your OS.

Note that the target file will be overwritten if already present when critchecker is run.

Scanning comment text for critique URLs

Compared to previous versions of critchecker, current and future versions utilize DeviantArt data to obtain critique URLs.

To restore the old text-searching behavior in addition to the new one, you can pass the -s flag.

Filtering by critters

You can optionally provide a list of space-separated usernames after the journal URL and date, which will act as a whitelist of critique authors whose critiques are allowed in the final CSV file.

Usernames are compared in a case-insensitive way, so BeckyKidus and beckykidus are equivalent.

For historical reasons, deleted critiques (which lack username data) will be saved even if you provide a whitelist.

Building

To build a .whl file for critchecker, run the following from the project's root directory:

poetry build -f wheel

The wheel will be placed in the dist subdirectory.

Dev dependencies

To build critchecker, you will need Poetry to manage project building, virtual environments and dependencies.

The required dev dependencies are pylint, pytest, hypothesis and black.

Contributing

If you want to contribute, feel encouraged to fork the project, move to the project root and run:

poetry install

This will setup a virtual environment with all the required dependencies.

Moreover, it'll install critchecker itself inside the virtualenv, and you'll be able to execute it with:

poetry run critchecker

Remember to create a branch for every feature you want to implement or modify.

PRs produced as a result of "vibe coding" will be rejected.

Code style

This project follows the Black code style, so it's sufficient to run the formatter on your code prior to contributing it.

Sometimes, it might make sense to have Black avoid cramming multiple lines in one for the sake of clarity. If your gut says that code would look better on multiple lines, append a trailing comma to the last line as per the docs.

Type-annotate both the parameters and return values of your functions and methods, and always add docstrings to public code.

For the love of all that is dear, avoid inheritance outside of exception hierarchies or abstract base classes. Likewise, do not use global variables, although global "constants" are fine.

Preferably, use the imperative tense in your commit titles, and make sure their length is 50 chars max. Use the body if you feel more details ought to be saved for context.

Linting

Before issuing a PR, ensure that Pylint does not raise any warning apart from TODOs.

If you feel the need to silence a warning, leave a comment explaining your reasons, or mention the rationale in the commit message.

To lint a file, use:

poetry run pylint <file>

Unit testing

While not mandatory, I'd appreciate it if you added a Hypothesis-based unit test for every function you write. Subscribing to test-driven development isn't mandatory, though, and writing tests a posteriori is still better than having none at all.

In case property-based testing isn't your cup of tea, ping me and I'll write the unit test.

To run the tests, use:

poetry run pytest

If you also want statistics on how Hypothesis spends time, use:

poetry run pytest --hypothesis-show-statistics

Credits

This tool wouldn't exist if not for a certain BeckyKidus - it's thanks to this noodle's encouragement and typo-spotting sight if critchecker was even ready for Critmas 2020. Checking out their art is highly recommended.

A thank you goes to neurotype too - as the Critmas 2020 host, she sure had a say on this tool's database format.

License

This program is licensed under the terms of the MIT license.

Check LICENSE.txt for further info.