MILC is a framework for writing CLI tools. It makes writing good CLI’s easy.
Before building the QMK CLI I surveyed the available CLI frameworks and found them lacking. It seemed that there were two basic paths for building a CLI- integrate python modules like argparse, configparser, and logging myself or use a framework like Click.
In a world where Click exists why did I write my own? Because Click’s focus is on daemons, not CLI’s. You can write good CLI’s with Click but it’s extra work. I wanted to make writing good CLI’s the easy thing to do.
The decision to make my own was cemented after I built two QMK CLI prototypes- one using argparse, configparser, and logger and another using Click. I was having a bad time getting all the Click plugins I needed integrated when I had an epiphany that my first prototype was 90% of my own CLI framework. A couple hours later the first version of MILC was born.
MILC strikes a balance between flexibility for the programmer and good user interaction. All MILC scripts have flexible and configurable log output, the ability to turn colors on and off, and configuration file support. The programmer doesn’t have to write any extra code to provide those features to the user.
MILC is opinionated. For example, it thinks you should use Python’s built-in logging facility and does not provide the ability to use anything else. Another example is that command line arguments are automatically mapped to configuration file values so that users can always override a config file at runtime.
When the needs of the Programmer and the needs of End User come into conflict MILC tends to value the End User more.
It gives you a lot of features that aid development out of the box:
-v support so you can add cli.log.debug() messages and turn them on/off at runtimeInsufficient testing. Right now the unit testing is non-existent while the integration testing is reasonable but not complete. I wish I could dedicate 40 hours to writing comprehensive unit tests.