Small Project Layout

A project layout is the arrangement of files and folders in a small program.

For this subject, a simple layout is enough:

word_count/
  data/
    input.txt
  output/
    summary.txt
  word_tools.py
  run_summary.py

The goal is not ceremony. The goal is to make each file's job obvious.

Separate data, output, and code

Use folders for different kinds of files:

When generated output is separate from input data, rerunning a script is less confusing.

Keep reusable functions away from file paths

This function is easy to test:

It accepts text and returns a number. It does not know where the text came from.

This script handles paths:

That separation matters. Computation functions should often know as little as possible about the file system.

A tiny complete workflow

The browser runner keeps this inside a temporary file system. The structure is still the same structure you would use on your own machine.