Publisher

The main class is defined in pub.py. The scripts listen.py and test_udp.py are just for test and demo.

To test/demo, run:

$ python listen.py &
$ python test_udp.py

Discussion

The Publisher class helps with adding an output channel to a set of scripts that will be spawned through some unknown intelligent entity that wants to collect structured information from the script. Normally a script prints information to stdout, and error messages to stderr... and with this Publisher the script can also push JSON-formatted data to anyone who is listening in the right way.

The design approach for the Publisher class are:

• The use of Publisher in the scripts should be concise and intuitive. Script writers will not want to waste effort wrestling with an output engine that they are not using.
• Configuration or special handling for different output engines within the calling script should be unnecessary and discouraged.