What This is for?

Read this article about Puzzle Driven Development. Check also patent application US 12/840,306

Also, check 0pdd.com: a hosted service, where this command line tool works for you. Read this first: PDD in Action.

How to Install?

Install it first:

$ gem install pdd

How to Run?

Run it locally and read its output:

$ pdd --help

Every puzzle has to be formatted like this (pay attention to the leading space in every consecutive line):

/**
 * @todo #234:15m/DEV This is something to do later
 *  in one of the next releases. I can't figure out how
 *  how to implement it now, that's why the puzzle.
 */

It starts with @todo, followed by a space and a puzzle marker. Possible formats of puzzle markers:

#224
#TEST-13
#55:45min
#67/DES
#678:40m/DEV

You can exclude certain files from the search, for example:

pdd --exclude=src/**/*.java --exclude=target/**/*
pdd --exclude=src/**/*.java # exclude .java files in src/
pdd --exclude=src/**/* # exclude all files in src/

How to Configure Rules

You can specify post-parsing rules for your puzzles, in command line, for example:

$ pdd --rule=min-estimate:60 --rule=max-estimate:120

These two parameters will add two post-parsing rules min-estimate and max-estimate with parameters. Each rule may have an optional parameter specified after a colon.

Here is a list of rules available now:

• min-estimate:15 blocks all puzzles that don't have an estimate or their estimates are less than 15 minutes.

• max-estimate:120 blocks all puzzles with estimates over 120 minutes.

• available-roles:DEV,IMP,DES specifies a list of roles that are allowed in puzzles. Puzzles without explicitly specified roles will be rejected.

• min-words:5 blocks puzzles with descriptions shorter than five words.

• max-duplicates:1 blocks more than one duplicate of any puzzle (this rule is used by default).

You can put all command line options into .pdd file. The options from the file will be used first. Command line options may be added on top of them.