No Code

The best way to write code is to write no code at all.

Writing code that does nothing is great, but sometimes you still want your code to do something. This package allows you to write nothing, and still have your code do something.

Installation

[!TIP] It is highly recommended to use a virtual environment for proper installation of the no.pth file.

python -m pip install no-code

Python 3.10 or a newer version is required.

Usage

This package is intended to be used as a command-line tool.

[!IMPORTANT] Make sure you are in an activated virtual environment. Using uv run tends to break this package.

To turn your code into no code:

$ cat some_code.py
print("Hello, world! 😁")

$ no_code some_code.py > no_code.py

$ cat no_code.py
# coding: no
​‌‌‌​​​​​‌‌‌​​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​‌‌​‌‌‌​​‌‌‌​‌​​​​‌​‌​​​​​‌​​​‌​​‌​​‌​​​​‌‌​​‌​‌​‌‌​‌‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​​​‌‌​‌‌‌‌​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​​​​​​‌‌‌​‌‌‌​‌‌​‌‌‌‌​‌‌‌​​‌​​‌‌​‌‌​​​‌‌​​‌​​​​‌​​​​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌‌‌​​​​‌​​‌‌‌‌‌‌​​‌‌​​​‌​​​​​​‌​​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌​​‌​​​​‌​‌​

You can then run no code as usual:

$ python no_code.py
Hello, world! 😁

If, for some reason, you need to turn no code back into Python code:

$ yes_code no_code.py > some_code.py

$ cat some_code.py
print("Hello, world! 😁")

Troubleshooting

If you get SyntaxError: invalid syntax, make sure the line # coding: no is present at the top of your script.

If you get SyntaxError: encoding problem: no, follow the steps below to make sure the no encoding is registered on startup:

1. Run SITE_PACKAGES=$(python -c 'import sysconfig; print(sysconfig.get_path("purelib"))') to get the path to the Python site-packages directory.
2. Run echo "import no_code" > "$SITE_PACKAGES/no.pth" to register the no encoding on startup.

[!NOTE] If using PowerShell, use $SITE_PACKAGES instead of SITE_PACKAGES to assign the variable.

This issue is commonly encountered when installing no-code into the user site-packages.

More details

Not satisfied with no code? The package also provides two functions to easily convert between something and nothing.

• no_code.nothing(): Transform something (a string or bytes-like object) into nothing.
• no_code.something(): Transform nothing into something (a string or bytes-like object).

The commands no_code and yes_code also accept input from stdin if no file is provided.

$ echo "print(bool(1))" | no_code | yes_code | python
True

Credits

Inspired by Kelsey Hightower, based on INVISIBLE.js by Martin Kleppe.

License

MIT License