Python is a general-purpose high-level programming language. Its design philosophy emphasizes programmer productivity and code readability. It has a minimalist core syntax with very few basic commands and simple semantics, but it also has a large and comprehensive standard library, including an Application Programming Interface (API).
It features a fully dynamic type system and automatic memory management, similar to that of Scheme, Ruby, Perl, and Tcl, avoiding many of the complexities and overheads of compiled languages. The language was created by Guido van Rossum in 1991, and continues to grow in popularity, in part because it is easy to learn with a readable syntax. The name Python derives from the sketch comedy group Monty Python, not from the snake.
The prominence of Python is, in part, due to its flexibility, with the language frequently used by web and desktop developers, system administrators, data scientists, and machine learning engineers. It’s easy to learn and powerful to develop any kind of system with the language. Python’s large user base offers a virtuous circle. There’s more support available from the open source community for budding programmers seeking assistance.
The command line interface (also known as CLI) is a means to interact with a command line script. Python comes with several different libraries that allow you to write a command line interface for your scripts, but argparse, click and docopt are popular ways to create a CLI in Python.
And there’s lots of other command-line application tools available. Here’s our legendary ratings chart.
Let’s explore the 13 command-line Python application development tools. For each program we have compiled its own portal page, a full description with an in-depth analysis of its features, together with links to relevant resources.
| Command-Line Python Application Development Tools | |
|---|---|
| Python Fire | Library for automatically generating command line interfaces |
| argparse | Parser for command-line options, arguments and sub-commands |
| Click | Create beautiful command line interfaces in a composable way |
| Typer | Library for building CLI applications |
| Rich | Python library for rich text and beautiful formatting |
| Gooey | Convert console programs into end-user-friendly GUI software |
| alive-progress | Progress bar, with real-time throughput |
| Python Prompt Toolkit | Build powerful interactive command line and terminal applications |
| tqdm | Fast, extensible progress bar for Python and CLI |
| Asciimatics | Create full-screen text UIs from interactive forms to ASCII animations |
| Cement | CLI application framework for Python |
| docopt | Command-line interface description language |
| cliff | Framework for building command line programs |
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