The best way to write code is to write no code at all.

Writing code that does nothing is great, but sometimes you still want your code to do something. This package allows you to write nothing, and still have your code do something.

python -m pip install no-code

Python 3.10 or a newer version is required.

This package is intended to be used as a command-line tool.

To turn your code into no code:

$ cat some_code.py
print("Hello, world! 😁")

$ no_code some_code.py > no_code.py

$ cat no_code.py
# coding: no
​‌‌‌​​​​​‌‌‌​​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​‌‌​‌‌‌​​‌‌‌​‌​​​​‌​‌​​​​​‌​​​‌​​‌​​‌​​​​‌‌​​‌​‌​‌‌​‌‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​​​‌‌​‌‌‌‌​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​​​​​​‌‌‌​‌‌‌​‌‌​‌‌‌‌​‌‌‌​​‌​​‌‌​‌‌​​​‌‌​​‌​​​​‌​​​​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌‌‌​​​​‌​​‌‌‌‌‌‌​​‌‌​​​‌​​​​​​‌​​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌​​‌​​​​‌​‌​

You can then run no code as usual:

$ python no_code.py
Hello, world! 😁

If, for some reason, you need to turn no code back into Python code:

$ yes_code no_code.py > some_code.py

$ cat some_code.py
print("Hello, world! 😁")

If you get SyntaxError: invalid syntax, make sure the line # coding: no is present at the top of your script.

If you get SyntaxError: encoding problem: no, follow the steps below to make sure the no encoding is registered on startup:

1. Run SITE_PACKAGES=$(python -c 'import sysconfig; print(sysconfig.get_path("purelib"))') to get the path to the Python site-packages directory.
2. Run echo "import no_code" > "$SITE_PACKAGES/no.pth" to register the no encoding on startup.

This issue is commonly encountered when installing no-code into the user site-packages.

Not satisfied with no code? The package also provides two functions to easily convert between something and nothing.

• no_code.nothing(): Transform something (a string or bytes-like object) into nothing.
• no_code.something(): Transform nothing into something (a string or bytes-like object).

The commands no_code and yes_code also accept input from stdin if no file is provided.

$ echo "print(bool(1))" | no_code | yes_code | python
True

Inspired by Kelsey Hightower, based on INVISIBLE.js by Martin Kleppe.

MIT License