1. Coding Standards

Python code style outlined in PEP8
Python section of the NCEP Coding Standards
NCO WCOSS Implementation Standards for directory structure and script naming conventions
Doxygen, Python docstrings, and Sphinx for documentation
NOTE: Please do not use f-strings in the run_metplus.py file so that the Python version check can notify the user of the incorrect version. Using Python 3.5 or earlier will output the SyntaxError from the f-string instead of the useful error message.

1.1. Python code analysis tools

Static:

1.1.1. pylint

::

pip install pylint or conda install pylint

pylint.org

checks for code errors

pylint pep8 code-to-analyze will check for errors as well as PEP-8 style code

1.1.2. pyflakes

pip install pyflakes or conda install pyflakes

parses code rather than importing code, therefore OK to use on modules with side-effects

checks for code errors

faster than pylint

https://pypi.python.org/pypi/pyflakes

flake8 is wrapper to pyflakes, performs PEP-8 style checking in addition to error checking
    http://flake8.pycqa.org/en/latest/index.html#quickstart

1.1.3. vulture

checks for unused imports, variables, methods, classed ie "dead code"

pip install vulture or conda install vulture

https://pypi.python.org/pypi/vulture

Dynamic (run-time):

1.1.4. cpde-coverage analysis

Useful when running unit tests to determine whether tests are executing all possible branches, loops, etc.

1.1.5. figleaf

http://darcs.idyll.org/~t/projects/figleaf/doc/ Checking for God objects and God methods:

(from Chapter 4 of “How to Make Mistakes in Python”, Mike Pirnat)

find . -name "*.py" -exec wc -l {} \; | sort -g -r
    for all Python source files, order by size
    anything over 1000 lines is worth investigating (as general rule of thumb)

grep "^class " mybigmodule.py |wc -l
    counts the number of classes defined in mybigmodule.py

grep "\sdef " mybigmodule.py |wc -l

    counts the number of methods defined within a class or other function (ie at some level of indentation) in mybigmodule.py

    try this if the above doesn't work: grep "def " mybigmodule.py |wc -l

A high ratio of methods to classes warrants investigation (what constitutes a high ratio- 10:1, 5:1???)