https://github.com/andyw8/do_by
Automatically expiring TODO notes in Ruby
https://github.com/andyw8/do_by
Last synced: about 2 months ago
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Automatically expiring TODO notes in Ruby
- Host: GitHub
- URL: https://github.com/andyw8/do_by
- Owner: andyw8
- License: mit
- Created: 2014-05-17T10:45:11.000Z (about 11 years ago)
- Default Branch: master
- Last Pushed: 2019-02-06T03:15:14.000Z (over 6 years ago)
- Last Synced: 2025-03-29T14:09:33.405Z (about 2 months ago)
- Language: Ruby
- Homepage:
- Size: 26.4 KB
- Stars: 263
- Watchers: 5
- Forks: 7
- Open Issues: 4
-
Metadata Files:
- Readme: README.md
- License: LICENSE.txt
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README
# DoBy
[](https://travis-ci.org/andyw8/do_by)
[](https://codeclimate.com/github/andyw8/do_by)
This is a **proof-of-concept** of automatically-expiring TODO notes.
* [HackerNews thread](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7759878)
* [Reddit /r/programming thread](http://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/25se6v/todo_notes_that_throw_an_exception_if_theyre_not/)
TODO comments can be a plague on a software codebase. They begin as a good
intention to go back and do something, but are easily forgotten or ignored.
They can hang around in code for years. And unlike stale code, they're not excecuted,
so they never cause anything to break.
DoBy makes your TODO comments complain when they become stale. You add a note
using a special `TODO` method, providing a date which you to defer until.
When your code runs, the expiry date on the TODO will be checked, and it will
raise an error if it's overdue.
This forces you to look at the TODO task again. If it's no longer relevant, you
can delete it. If you can fix it, you fix it. If you cannot fix it right now,
change the date to something in the future to re-visit it again.
In addition to `TODO`, you could also add tasks for `FIXME` and `OPTIMIZE`
# Example
You can add reminders to specs or the actual implementation, anywhere
that will be executed:
```ruby
class Article < ActiveRecord::Base
TODO 'add named scopes', '2014-06-01'
OPTIMIZE 'improve this code', '2014-10-01'
FIXME 'some_method is broken', '2014-05-01'
has_many :comments
# ...
end
```
The date can be anything parseable by Ruby's `DateTime.parse` method - `2014-06`, `June`, etc.
Enable DoBy checks by setting `ENABLE_DO_BY=1` in the environment.
(It's made that way so it doesn't run by default on production
environments. You wouldn't want accidents to happen!)
Before that date, everything will run as normal. After that date, the code will
raise an exception:
`DoBy::LateTask: 'fix this' is overdue (2014-06-01)`
## FAQ
**Why not just use the features my IDE/editor has for tracking TODOs?**
You need to either remember to check these periodically, or choose to always display them when you run you tests. If these stick around for more than a short time you'll start ignoring them.
## Enhancements
Several people have suggested that this concept could exist as a script which scans over the code for TODOs. That means the TODOs could stay as actual comments, supplemented with some metadata, e.g.:
`# TODO [20140601] Fix Me`
This script could run as part of a Continous Integration process so that it fails the build if there are overdue TODOs.
## Installation
Add this line to your application's Gemfile:
gem 'do_by', github: 'andyw8/do_by'
And then execute:
$ bundle
## Similar Projects
* [FixMe](https://github.com/henrik/fixme)
* [DoBy](https://github.com/leanovate/doby) (Scala)
* [todo_or_die](https://github.com/searls/todo_or_die)
## Coverage
* [Beware the Siren Song of Comments](http://www.leastastonished.com/blog/2014/08/27/beware-the-siren-song-of-comments/)
## Contributing
1. Fork it ( https://github.com/andyw8/do_by/fork )
2. Create your feature branch (`git checkout -b my-new-feature`)
3. Commit your changes (`git commit -am 'Add some feature'`)
4. Push to the branch (`git push origin my-new-feature`)
5. Create a new Pull Request