`cookiecutter` for matlab-project

This is a cookiecutter template for MATLAB projects. Technically this is more so the type of projects I'm used to. For other purposes like add-on or app development, please consider looking at 1. The structure of this template is inspired by 1, 2, 3. This template is quite barebone vanilla. I'm open to suggestions and feedbacks.

TODO

Add option to select git submodule add, git substree, or git clone for external packages.
Change color scheme of fzf default options.
Add option to create and exploratory branch.
Add option to not use external package installation during template generation without having to go through the prompt, maybe via some config file?
Add option to download external packages from MathworksExchange
Add a script to download and install external packages after template generation.

Dependencies

cookiecutter, preferentially in a conda environment (or just any python virtual environment to keep things clean for your system)
fzf for selecting options post-generation selections of external packages. Please refer to their repo for installation to specific OSes. Additionally, you could also use conda to install fzf.

Instructions

For example, I created a conda environment named to remove the submodule, or do it however you're comfortable with.cookie-cutter-env:

# remember to activate your environment
conda activate cookie-cutter-env

# installation (only need to do once)
conda install -c conda-forge cookiecutter
conda install -c conda-forge fzf

# use the template
cookiecutter https://github.com/tuanpham96/cookiecutter-matlab-project

After the template is done, go through the prompts to install external packages from github repos - these are some that I usually use. If there are other you would like to recommend, please let me know to add into the list of options.

External packages options

If you accidentally select some packages but you don't want it anymore, just remove it in the extpkg (for example by using rm -rf). For packages added as a submodule, you can refer to here to remove the submodule, or do it however you're comfortable with.

If you don't choose any of the above list during the generation step, just simply do a git clone or git submodule add or git substree add (follow here for more information) with the links above in the extpkg path.

Currently these are from github repos.

penguin-matlab-utils: a list of functions I developed over the years. Would not recommend cuz I don't document well with many of them.
export_fig: exporting matlab figures, quite useful with the cropping option to save space, and with linux OSes due to some font inavailability.
ParforProgMon: progress monitor for using parfor. There are of course other forks doing the same thing.
shadedErrorBar: shaded error bars + lines that look nicer than MATLAB built-in error bars
Violinplot-Matlab: beautiful violin plots. I really wish MATLAB would step it up and made these plots one of their standards.

I'm not quite sure yet how to add the ones from MathworksExchange yet.

Template structure

├── code                <-- [dir] scripts to run the main codes
├── data                <-- [dir] data directory; depending on usage, create further subdirectories and update the *.gitignore* and *.gitkeep* files
├── demo                <-- [dir] demo scripts to show examples, if needed
├── docs                <-- [dir] documents, like references, instructions, some reports
├── extpkg              <-- [dir] external packages and addons (from github or matlabexchange for example); either download them straight here, clone them, or add as a submodule or as subtree
├── figures             <-- [dir] figure directory; depending on usage, create further subdirectories
├── functions           <-- [dir] source functions to be used for scripts
├── reports             <-- [dir] tend to be final reports, or presentations
├── scratch             <-- [dir] scratch/test codes and scripts
├── LICENSE
└── README.md           <-- [file] describe the project and its progress here