TODO.txt 2008 Ultimate Team Edition
Believe it or not, the simple TODO.txt ticks a lot of boxes when it comes to collaborative issue management. Check out this list of cool features for the mighty TODO.txt file.
- Full Version History - when used in conjunction with GIT or SVN
- Task Prioritisation - TODO items can be reordered into priority order
- Release Management - TODO items can be put into different releases.
- Centralised Issue Management - when used in conjunction with GIT, SVN, FTP or WebDav
- 100% Collaborative - Many developers can view and edit TODO.txt at once with little risk of conflict.
- Low Cost - there are no licensing fees.
- Easy to install - no web server or desktop client needed. Use with your existing text editor (Notepad++, TextMate, Visual Studio or Vim recommended).
- Easy to Learn - it's as simple as typing text!
- Non Intrusive - use TODO.txt from within your IDE whilst developing.
- Small Footprint - uses almost NO memory or CPU.
- True Mobile Platform - TODO.txt works on 90% of mobile phones.
- Cross Platform - TODO.txt works on any computer platform created after 1960.
- Easy Import/Export - Export data to any other bug tracker using RegEx and SQL.
- International Support - when used with a UNICODE compliant editor.
Ok, this is a bit tongue in cheek, but you have to admit, the humble TODO.txt has a lot going for it.
Example
Here's part of the TODO list for Squilbo, a web based database tool I'm working on.
Key
===
* = This release
> = Bumped to some future release
x = Done or Cancelled
Feature: Schema Browser
=======================
* show stored procedures
* show functions
* clear and show waiting signal whilst loading new schema view
* show "Please wait" when loading data from server
* drag n' drop tablename onto query
> right click table gives option "Select top 100 records"
> right click on column gives option "Select top 100 distinct values"
x show data types on hover over column name
x show views
x refresh databases drop down on connect
x show key columns with different icon
So this question is this. I'll obviously have to move to something more sophisticated after release 1 of my little project. But what is the next step up?
Humour aside, can anyone name a bug/issue/task tracking tool that comes close to the criteria listed above, and builds on them? And no, Excel is not an option I'd consider :)
Comments
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I like this approach. It probably works great for small teams; I can’t imagine it scales too well past a dozen or so developers, though I doubt that was your intention. :)
It does fit with agile practices—using the simplest tool possible, or in this case no tool at all, if something more expensive can’t be justified.
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Tobin, ever use ToDoList ? It’s pretty powerful and free. No installer which I like.
Not as simple as your approach though which is the one I usually use for my personal projects.
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@Sean
Yes, not too scalable :) What’s funny is that I used this approach whilst actually building an issue tracking tool for a client! They were a Microsoft Gold Partner, and the amount of constraints they wanted built in to their software scared me a bit. I like tools that lean on trust and human factors, with good UNDO capabilities.
@Chris
ToDo list looks cool, I want to download it to have a look at the code. Thanks for the link.
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I’ve used this approach for all my projects now since the end of the previous millennium Tobes, and I can guarantee you that it is superb…! Sometimes (at employers) I’ve been forced into using some alternative, and I can tell you that nothing beats TODO.txt neither in features, scalability, flexibility, ease of use and xxx (exchange xxx with any English positive word ;)
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That reminds me of the chapter “The power of plain text” from the Pragmatic Programmer book… :)
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Very cool. How big is the download and where can I get it. Is the licensing GPL-friendly? ;)
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That’s great and all for the Alt.NET crowd, but I’m afraid average Mort developers aren’t going to get the benefits unless Microsoft ships this with Visual Studio out of the box. I’m afraid they’re likely to produce an inferior imitation and call it something like VSTS. ;)
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I created a very simple online todo.txt editor in PHP – it’s just a single php file that displays the text file and allows you to save it back to the server. How you manage the file after that is up to you.
http://www.garven.net/todo/