GN(1) NAME gn -- The simplest template generator. SYNOPSIS gn <plan> gn -i <plan-url> gn -h DESCRIPTION <plan> Opens the blueprints with the default editor, and once saved it expands the templates. -i <plan-url> Installs the given plan from a git repository. It clones the repository to ~/.gn/<plan>. -h Display this help message. EXAMPLE PLAN A plan is a directory in ~/.gn/<plan>, with the following structure: ~/.gn/<plan>/plan.rb ~/.gn/<plan>/plan/<template>.mote For example, consider a plan for generating a gemspec file. ~/.gn/gemspec/plan.rb ~/.gn/gemspec/plan/gemspec.mote The plan definition `plan.rb` has this format: module Plan class GemSpec def name "foo" end def version "0.0.1" end def description "Description of my gem" end def authors ["My Name"] end def email ["my_name@example.com"] end def homepage "http://example.com/" end def license "MIT" end def destination "#{name}.gemspec" end end end The only mandatory method is `destination`. Everything else is optional and is based on how the template is designed. Templates are rendered using mote (http://soveran.github.com/mote), the minimalist template engine. Variable interpolation is done by using the {{variable}} syntax, as shown in the example below. Variable names are extracted from the plan context, in this case an instance of `Plan::GemSpec`. # encoding: utf-8 Gem::Specification.new do |s| s.name = "{{name}}" s.version = "{{version}}" s.summary = "{{description}}" s.description = "{{description}}" s.authors = {{authors.inspect}} s.email = {{email.inspect}} s.homepage = "{{homepage}}" s.files = [] s.license = "{{license}}" # s.executables.push(<executable>) # s.add_dependency <dependency>, <version> end Refer to the advanced example for information about how to generate different files and directory structures. ADVANCED EXAMPLE It is possible to use gn to generate several files and even complex directory structures. Consider this plan definition: $ find .gn/foo .gn/foo//plan.rb .gn/foo//plan/foo.mote .gn/foo//plan/bar/baz.mote $ cat plan.rb module Plan class Foo def destination "foo.rb" end end module Bar class Bar def destination "bar/baz.rb" end end end end DSL USAGE Define your plan like this: require 'gn/dsl' module Plan extend Gn::DSL template "App", "app.rb" end Or you can provide additional methods in a block: require 'gn/dsl' module Plan extend Gn::DSL template "App", "app.rb" do def name "My App Name" end end end EDITING A PLAN When using a template, gn gives you the ability to edit the plan before running it. Only the templates that correspond to classes defined in the Plan module get expanded and written. It means that if you want to create only the file `foo.rb` in the example above, all you have to do is delete the Bar module from the plan definition. INSTALLATION $ gem install gn HISTORY In software development, there's usually the need to generate code or directory structures, and many tools have this feature built in. The idea with gn is to provide a small and simple tool that generalizes the task of template expansion in a way that's easy to understand, yet powerful and flexible.
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gn
Simple Generator for the masses
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