#56: work in progress, documentation for using python API to control live tmux sessions via python.

Author: tony

CHANGES

@@ -4,6 +4,13 @@ Changelog
 
 Here you can find the recent changes to tmuxp.
 
+CURRENT
+-------
+
+- [docs]: :ref:`python_api_quickstart` per `Issue #56`_.
+
+.. _Issue #56: https://github.com/tony/tmuxp/issues/56
+
 0.1.7
 -----
 

doc/api.rst

@@ -4,6 +4,10 @@
 API Reference
 =============
 
+.. seealso::
+    :ref:`python_api_quickstart` to see how you can control tmux via
+    python API calls.
+
 .. module:: tmuxp
 
 Server Object

doc/index.rst

@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@ Explore:
 
     about
     quickstart
+    quickstart_python
     examples
     cli
     internals

doc/quickstart_python.rst

@@ -0,0 +1,116 @@
+.. _python_api_quickstart:
+
+=====================
+Python API Quickstart
+=====================
+
+tmuxp allows for developers and system administrators to control live tmux
+sessions using python code.
+
+In this example, we will launch a tmux session and control the windows
+from inside a live tmux session.
+
+
+Setting up tab-completion
+-------------------------
+
+To begin, it's preferable to install a python CLI with tab-completion.
+
+You can install a custom python shell like `bpython`_ or `iPython`_, which
+has some awesome CLI features, or setup vanilla :py:mod:`readline` support.
+
+``readline`` tab-completion
+"""""""""""""""""""""""""""
+
+.. seealso::
+    Source: `How do I add tab-completion to the python shell`_ on 
+    `StackOverflow`_.
+
+Create ``~.pythonrc`` in ``$HOME`` folder:
+
+.. code-block:: python
+
+    # ~/.pythonrc
+    # enable syntax completion
+    try:
+        import readline
+    except ImportError:
+        print "Module readline not available."
+    else:
+        import rlcompleter
+        readline.parse_and_bind("tab: complete")
+
+Then to your ``.bashrc`` or ``.zshrc`` file, add:
+
+.. code-block:: bash
+
+    export PYTHONSTARTUP=~/.pythonrc
+
+.. _How do I add tab-completion to the python shell: http://stackoverflow.com/a/246779
+.. _StackOverflow: http://www.stackoverflow.com
+
+bpython or ipython cli
+""""""""""""""""""""""
+
+`bpython`_ can be installed with ``$ [sudo] pip install bpython`` and
+`ipython`_ can be installed with ``$ [sudo] pip install ipython``.
+
+bpython allows using ``<F2>`` to see the source of CLI methods in colors.
+
+.. todo::
+    If you know any extra benefits of ipython or bpython for CLI and could
+    list them here please edit this page.
+
+
+.. _bpython: https://bitbucket.org/bobf/bpython
+.. _ipython: http://ipython.org
+
+Control tmux via python
+-----------------------
+
+.. seealso:: :ref:`api`
+
+.. todo:: Do a version of this with `sliderepl`_
+
+To begin, ensure  the ``tmux`` program is installed.
+
+Next, ensure ``tmuxp`` (note the p!) is installed:
+
+.. code-block:: bash
+
+    $ [sudo] pip install tmuxp
+
+Now, let's open a tmux session.
+
+.. code-block:: bash
+
+    $ tmux
+
+We are inside of a tmux session, let's launch our python interpretter
+(``$ python``, ``$ bpython`` or ``$ ipython``) and begin issuing commands
+to tmuxp CLI style. For this I'll use ``python``.
+
+.. code-block:: bash
+
+    $ python
+
+.. module:: tmuxp
+
+First, we can grab a :class:`Server`.
+
+
+.. code-block:: python
+
+    server = tmuxp.Server()
+
+.. note::
+
+    You can specify a ``socket_name``, ``socket_path`` and ``config_file``
+    in your server object.  ``tmuxp.Server(socket_name='mysocket')`` is
+    equivalent to ``$ tmux -L mysocket``.
+
+``server`` is now a living object bound to the tmux server's Sessions,
+Windows and Panes.
+
+
+.. _sliderepl: http://discorporate.us/projects/sliderepl/