Write Your Python Scripts In A Flow Based Visual Editor With Ryven

Summary

When you are writing a script it can become unwieldy to understand how the logic and data are flowing through the program. To make this easier to follow you can use a flow-based approach to building your programs. Leonn Thomm created the Ryven project as an environment for visually constructing a flow-based program. In this episode he shares his inspiration for creating the Ryven project, how it changes the way you think about program design, how Ryven is implemented, and how to get started with it for your own programs.

Announcements

• Hello and welcome to Podcast.__init__, the podcast about Python and the people who make it great.
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• Your host as usual is Tobias Macey and today I’m interviewing Leon Thomm about Ryven, a flow-based visual scripting environment for Python

Interview

• Introductions
• How did you get introduced to Python?
• Can you start by giving an overview of what Ryven is and what inspired you to create it?
• What is flow-based visual scripting?
• What are other popular flow-based visual scripting systems out there and have they been inspiring to the project?
  • What problem(s) do these try to solve?
• What are some of the places where you are drawing inspiration for Ryven?
• What are the kinds of projects that someone might build with Ryven?
• How are you using Ryven in your personal projects?
• How does structuring a project as a set of nodes in a flow graph influence the way that you think about how to design the solution to a problem?
• Can you describe how Ryven is implemented?
  • How has the design or goals of the project changed or evolved since you first began working on it?
• For someone who wants to use Ryven to build a project can you describe their workflow?
• How do you handle things like code quality and tests for a Ryven project?
• How do you manage collaboration for a Ryven project? (e.g. version control)
• What are some of the most interesting, innovative, or unexpected ways that you have seen Ryven used?
• What are the most interesting, unexpected, or challenging lessons that you have learned while building Ryven?
• When is Ryven the wrong choice?
• What do you have planned for the future of the project?

Keep In Touch

• leon-thomm on GitHub

Picks

• Tobias
  • PyInfra
• Leon
  • A Universe from Nothing! by Lawrence M. Krauss

Links

• Ryven
• Switzerland
• Qt C++ framework
• Flow-based Scripting
• Unreal Engine
• Node-RED
• IFTTT == IF This Then That
• DAG == Directed Acyclic Graph
• Mind Map
• Literate Programming
• nbdev
  • Podcast Episode
• Org Mode
• OpenCV
• scikit-learn
• Unreal Python

The intro and outro music is from Requiem for a Fish The Freak Fandango Orchestra / CC BY-SA