Glossary¶

Workflow management system¶

A workflow management system (WMF) provides an infrastructure for the set-up, performance, and monitoring of a defined sequence of tasks.

DAG¶

A directed acyclic graph (DAG) is a graph with a finite amount of nodes and edges which are connected such that no circles exist.

Host¶

The program which offers extensibility via entry-points.

Entry-point¶

Access points for plugins in the host program. At an entry-point, the host sends a message which can be processed by plugins. Then, the plugins may respond.

Plugin¶

A plugin is software which changes the behavior of the host program by processing the message sent by the host at an entry-point. A plugin can consist of one or more hook implementations.

Hooking¶

See the reference guide on pluggy or the more general explanation on Wikipedia.

Hook specification¶

Another term for entry-point when talking about hooking and pluggy.

Hook implementation¶

A part of the plugin which intercepts the message at one specific entry-point.

Private function¶

A function whose name starts with an underscore. The function should only be used in the module where it is defined.

Public function¶

A function whose name does not start with an underscore. The function can be imported in other modules.

PyTree¶

A PyTree is a tree-like structure built out of tuples, lists, and dictionaries and other container types if registered. Any other object that is not a registered container is treated as a node in the tree.