Sharing a program I wrote

[James Harris]

On 4 May, 22:40, Scott <scott.freem... at gmail.com> wrote:
> I'm looking for suggestions on what to do (and how to do it) if I want
> to share a program that I wrote in Python. There seem to be quite a
> few places to post code and I don't know how to choose.

Perhaps look at the options and then select whichever suits your needs
best.

> I wrote a program (script?) that takes a text file containing the
> output of  the "show access-list" command on a Cisco PIX/ASA/FWSM
> firewall and any number of text files containing syslog output from
> the same firewall and creates a report showing which access-list rules
> allowed which actual connections. It is written in Python 2.6 and runs
> on Windows.
>
> Since this is obviously something mankind has long been waiting for I
> am thinking about sharing it - but since I am new to Python and
> programming in general I am not at all familiar with dealing with
> source code.
>
> I'm sure that improvements and additions could be made if it was
> reviewed by "actual programmers" but I wouldn't exactly call it a
> "project" either. Of course I'd love to add a gui interface...

An option if you want reviews - and your code is short - is to post it
here to comp.lang.python.

> I've seen pypi. It seems to index code that is posted on all sorts of
> sites - including pypi itself? And what is a "package" anyway? I've
> seen sourceforge. It looks like a good home for big applications or
> multi-developer projects. Freshmeat? Google code? My own website? Your
> blog?

Yes, many of these are well suited for significant projects. I set up

  http://codewiki.wikispaces.com/

Its focus is not on code size per se but on promoting sharing and
updates. However, *smaller* pieces of code are preferred, i.e. code
that can be viewed online and learned from. For example, see the
Python programs at

  http://codewiki.wikispaces.com/index_by_language#x-Portable%20Python

>
> Another detail is that my program uses a library that was written by
> someone else. It is the most excellent netaddr written by David P. D.
> Moss and it lives at code.google.com. It uses the New BSD License.
> Since this library is required would I simply provide a link to it?
> Would I post the actual library? Do I have to post a copy of his
> copyright info anywhere? Please don't tell me I have to write some
> kind of installer that takes care of providing that.

Unless you are worried that the original copy of the library may be
deleted or lost it should be enough to post a link. Then the web site
that contains the code would be responsible for explaining its licence
and will include other relevant documentation.

For my own code on codewiki I include installation instructions as
text, where necessary.

> I really just want anyone who might need a little networking/security
> tool like this to be able to find it. Any advice?

That was similar to my motive. Interestingly the highest number of
page hits on the site is for a networking utility.

James