Latest Vellum (0.8) is out without YAML and with Python but also without all of Python. The motto for this release is:

You love your Python, but I don't trust your Python.

What this means is that Vellum now uses a simple small parser written with Zapps (you need that to install this release for now) that parses only enough real Python to describe a build.

This amounts to import statements, simple assignments, full strings, numbers, dicts, lists, tuples, and that’s all.

Since now the imports work by loading other build files recursively it will also find builds using . notation and pull them out of a ~/.vellum directory so you can have common build stuff available.

This release is still rough, with me cleaning up code that and I still need to implement the commands you can use, but otherwise try it out if you’re tracking the project.

You can get a release from Launchpad or from here and the Bazaar repo is still up at “http://www.zedshaw.com/repository/vellum/”.

If you’re interested in how the parser works, take a look at the vellum/parser.g file.

I’ll have another release shortly to clean things up.