Installation

Table of contents

Prerequisites

Gestalt requires Python 3.9 or later.

Required packages

Gestalt depends on the following Python packages:

Package Purpose
lxml XML generation for caQtDM .ui files
PyYAML YAML parsing for layout and data files

Install them with pip:

pip install lxml pyyaml

Optional packages

Package Purpose
phoebusgen Required for generating CSS-Phoebus .bob files
PyQt5 Required for the GUI mode
tkinter Used for font measurement (included with most Python installations) 
pip install phoebusgen pyqt5

tkinter is typically bundled with Python. If it is missing on your system, install it through your system package manager (e.g., apt install python3-tk on Debian/Ubuntu, dnf install python3-tkinter on RHEL/Fedora).

Install Gestalt

Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/BCDA-APS/gestalt.git
cd gestalt

Gestalt runs directly from the source directory – no build step is needed.

Verify the installation

Check that Gestalt can run:

python gestalt.py --help

You should see the usage message with available options. If you get import errors, verify that lxml and pyyaml are installed in the same Python environment.

To verify that caQtDM output works, create a minimal layout file called test.yml:

#include colors.yml

Form: !Form
    title: "Test"

Label: !Text
    geometry: 100x20
    text: "It works"

Then generate output:

python gestalt.py --to ui --output test.ui test.yml

If test.ui is created without errors, your installation is working.

To verify CSS-Phoebus output, run the same command with --to bob:

python gestalt.py --to bob --output test.bob test.yml

This requires phoebusgen to be installed. If you see an import error for phoebusgen, install it with pip install phoebusgen.

Gestalt’s directory structure 

gestalt/
    gestalt.py          # command-line entry point
    gestalt/            # core library (nodes, generators, type system)
    widgets/            # built-in includes (colors.yml, templates, etc.)
    layouts/            # built-in GUI layouts
    docs/               # documentation
    tests/              # test suite

The widgets/ directory is automatically included in the search path for #include statements – you do not need to specify it with --include.

Next steps