developer-guide

Developer Guide

Complete guide for rmToo developers, contributors, and advanced users.

Getting Started

Development Setup

• Development Environment - Setting up your development environment
• Contributing - How to contribute to rmToo
• Self-Hosting - Running rmToo on rmToo's own requirements

Planning and Vision

• Roadmap - Future development plans and features
• Internal Notes - Development tracking and conventions

Architecture Overview

Core Components

rmToo follows a plugin-based architecture:

Input Processing

• Input Plugins: Parse requirement tags and dependencies (e.g., ReqName, ReqDescription, RDepDependsOn)
• Storage Backend: Support for text files and YAML formats
• Validation: Syntax and semantic error checking

Processing Engine

• TopicContinuumSet: Version-controlled collection of requirements and topics
• Dependency Resolution: Automatic dependency graph creation
• Analytics: Quality checking modules (DescWords, HotSpot, TopicCohe, ReqTopicCohe)

Output Generation

• Output Plugins: Generate different artifact formats (html, latex2, graph2, xml1, etc.)
• Template System: Jinja2-based template processing
• Multi-format Support: Parallel generation of multiple output types

Plugin Architecture

All plugins are registered through setuptools entry points:

entry_points={
    'rmtoo.input.plugin': [
        'ReqName = rmtoo.inputs.ReqName:ReqName',
        # ...
    ],
    'rmtoo.output.plugin': [
        'html = rmtoo.outputs.html:html',
        # ...
    ],
}

Development Workflow

Setting Up Development Environment

1. Clone the repository
2. Create virtual environment
3. Install in development mode: pip install -e .
4. Run tests: tox or pytest

Making Changes

1. Create feature branch
2. Implement changes with tests
3. Run full test suite
4. Submit pull request

Testing

• Unit Tests: Core component testing
• Blackbox Tests: Full integration testing
• Output Tests: Format-specific validation
• Syntax Tests: Input validation

Run tests with: tox (recommended) or pytest

Code Quality

• Follow PEP 8 standards
• Use meaningful names
• Add docstrings for public interfaces
• Include type hints where appropriate

Extending rmToo

Adding Input Plugins

1. Create class in rmtoo/inputs/ inheriting from appropriate base
2. Add entry point in setup.py
3. Implement required methods for tag parsing
4. Add tests

Adding Output Plugins

1. Create class in rmtoo/outputs/ inheriting from ExecutorTopicContinuum
2. Add entry point in setup.py
3. Implement lifecycle methods for artifact generation
4. Add tests

Configuration System

• Hierarchical configuration merging
• JSON/YAML format support
• Variable substitution: "${variable_name}"
• Environment variable support

Key Development Areas

Quality Assurance

• Comprehensive test coverage (95%+)
• Multiple Python version support (3.8-3.13)
• Continuous integration with GitHub Actions
• Code quality monitoring with SonarCloud

Performance Considerations

• Efficient dependency graph processing
• Optimized template rendering
• Memory-conscious large requirement set handling

Compatibility

• Cross-platform support (Linux, macOS, Windows)
• Multiple Python versions
• Backward compatibility maintenance

Getting Help

Development Resources

• GitHub Repository: florath/rmtoo
• Issues: GitHub Issues
• Contact: rmtoo@florath.net

Documentation

• Man pages: man rmtoo
• Code documentation: Well-documented source code
• Example projects: Template project and email client example

Contributing

We welcome contributions! Please:

1. Read the Contributing Guide
2. Set up your Development Environment
3. Follow our coding standards
4. Include tests with your changes
5. Submit pull requests for review

Ready to contribute? Start with the Contributing Guide!