connectors 4.0

A package for connecting objects to form a processing chain

The Connectors package facilitates the writing of block-diagram-like processing networks. For this it provides decorators for the methods of processing classes, so they can be connected to each other. When a parameter in such a processing network is changed, the result values will also be updated automatically. This is similar to a pipes and filters architecture, the observer pattern or streams.

This short example demonstrates the core functionality of the Connectors package by implementing a processing network of two sequential blocks, which double their input value:

>>> import connectors
>>>
>>> class TimesTwo:
...     def __init__(self, value=0):
...         self.__value = value
...
...     @connectors.Input("get_double")
...     def set_value(self, value):
...         self.__value = value
...
...     @connectors.Output()
...     def get_double(self):
...          return 2 * self.__value
>>>
>>> d1 = TimesTwo()                                     # create an instance that doubles its input value
>>> d2 = TimesTwo().set_value.connect(d1.get_double)    # create a second instance and connect it to the first
>>> d2.get_double()
0
>>> d1.set_value(2)
>>> d2.get_double()                                     # causes the new input value 2 to be processed by d1 and d2
8

Installation

The Connectors package requires Python version 3.6 or later. Python 3.5 might work, but this is not tested.

pip3 install connectors

Documentation

The documentation for the Connectors librariy can be found on Read the Docs.

License

The Connectors package is published under the terms and conditions of the GNU lesser general public license version 3 or later (LGPLv3+).