latex2pydata - write data to file in Python literal format

Author:  Geoffrey M. Poore
License:  LPPL v1.3c or later
Development:  https://github.com/gpoore/latex2pydata/tree/main/latex


latex2pydata is a LaTeX package for writing data to file using Python literal
syntax (https://docs.python.org/3/reference/lexical_analysis.html#literals).
The data may be loaded safely in Python using the ast.literal_eval() function
(https://docs.python.org/3/library/ast.html#ast.literal_eval) or the
latex2pydata Python package
https://github.com/gpoore/latex2pydata/tree/main/python).

The top-level data structure can be configured as either a Python dict or a
list of dicts.  Within dicts, all keys and values are written to file as
Python string literals.  However, this does not limit the data types that can
be passed from LaTeX to Python.  When data is loaded, the included schema
functionality makes it possible to convert string values into other Python
data types such as dicts, lists, sets, bools, and numbers.

The data is suitable for direct loading in Python with ast.literal_eval().
It is also possible to load data using the latex2pydata Python package
(https://github.com/gpoore/latex2pydata/tree/main/python).  This functions as
a wrapper for ast.literal_eval().  The package requires all keys to match the
regex "[A-Za-z_][0-9A-Za-z_]*".  Periods in keys are interpreted as key paths
and indicate sub-dicts.  For example, the key path "main.sub" represents a key
"main" in the main dict that maps to a sub-dict containing a key "sub".  The
Python package supports the schema features provided by the LaTeX package, so
that data types other than dicts of strings are possible.