In my project there are large no. of FIXME / TODO which are to addressed at some point of time. Actually there about 480 which can be seen from 'TASKS' list but not organised.
I googled and found the Task Tag Decorator plugin.
But unfortunately this is not working.
Can anyone suggest a plugin for FIXME/TODO
apart from this.
I would also wanted to hear from all how these situations are usually managed
What you don't want to hear is that how these situations are usually managed is by not letting them grow so big. But I'm afraid that is the case.
The Pragmatic Programmers advise us Don't live with broken windows. The point being, that if we leave something broken instead of fixing it then other things will be left and before we know it we have 480 items on our TODO list. Plus, there is a danger that some part of our application will come to rely on the "broken" behaviour, so when we address the TODO item we also have fix that as well.
Not everybody can live up to the Pragmatic Programmers' high standards. An alternative approach is to have a list of stuff which needs to be worked on (sometimes known as the Kaizen list). People who are blocked on their assigned work can pick up one of those tasks.
As for your current situation....
I have a rule of thumb which states that nothing can be done in less than half-a-day: not once you include source control, documentation, discussing the change with Bob, etc. Of course, my rule of thumb doesn't apply to truly trivial tasks, but if these tasks were truly trivial they would have been fixed on the spot, not marked as TODO, right?
So you're looking down the barrel of 240 days of effort. If lots of those tasks can be combined into a single fix then you can reduce the per task overhead. But first you've got a chunk of work just to sift through the tasks, categorising and prioritising them. This is why thay call it "technical debt": the longer we leave it the more it costs to fix, and it has the compound interest rate of the average doorstep loanshark.
Unless you have a very understanding project manager/paying customer I think you will have to accept that you aren't going to be able to clear all these items. So you need a brief triaging exercise: assign each TODO into one of three categories:
Stuff that is intolerable and needs
to be fixed right now
Stuff that ought to be fixed as and
when there is an opportunity
Stuff that you're just going to have
to live with
Good luck!
Just wanted to chime in and say that I was able to get the Task Tags Decorator working in eclipse 3.5.0. Here's how.
Install from the update site : Task Tags Decorator Update Site
In preferences: General->Appearance->Label Decorators->Task Tag Decorators
Set up your decorators there.
Then go to: General->Appearance->Label Decorators and check the "Task Tag Decorator" box and Apply
I found this very frustrating to figure out and I hope it helps others. I really like the plugin and have found it helpful for me to visually keep track of TODOs. I think it also helps me keep the TODO list short since it's not out-of-sight-out-of-mind.
In what way do you want them to be organised? More specifically what doesn't the Task View do that you want to do?
For information you can do the following with the standard tasks view:
Click each column header in the task view to sort by that column ascending/descending.
Select the View Menu (downward triangle in top right of view) and
Group tasks by type
Show only a particular task type
Select Configure Contents... then :
Select a Scope to restrict the tasks shown to your desired scope (I find On selected element and its children particularly handy).
Filter tasks by description text (using contains or does not contain)
Filter based on Priority and/or Completed status and Task Type
There are also a few other options you may find useful if you dig through the View Menu.
You might want to look into Mylyn.
It might also be worth considering what it means to use one of these tags.
The trouble is that if you have almost five hundred of these things it doesn't seem likely that you are going to be able to delete them as 'stuff to do' at any point soon. Thus, the impact of using the tag and the process implied therein is diminished, and you end up with the problem you are citing, that the data set has become unmanageable.
The point is that the code is the truth, not the comments, whether they are marked up with task tags or not. You have to have something measurable by which you improve the code.
As an example, when I do code reviews I use these tags in a first pass before the code review pairing begins. The aim is that by the time the code review is complete the tags do not exist.
Related
I know this is too strange question, but we have multiple authors of one document and some contributors use OpenOffice to edit document, originating and edited by majority in MS word. Document is quite complex with differently structured paragraphs and fonts, bullets, numbering, embedded pictures, references to comments under the line, copied/pasted sections pasted with source formatting instead of pure text etc., so generally "fragile" and maybe little bit exceeding expectations of OpenOffice authors for MS compatibility. Bottom line is about various formatting issues, glue-ing of some words (occasionally space is missing), page footer/header modified or completely disappeared etc. We are unable to control behaviour of contributors and editors to the extent I would like to have, so I am trying to findout whether is there a way how to force users to use exclusively MS word for particular docx and to prevent using anything else? (I am not on MS payroll, I personally moved couple of people around me with "standard" document writing needs to OpenOffice, but incompatibility in this case creates useless redaction work for us.)
Thanks for any hint.
whether is there a way how to force users to use exclusively MS word for particular docx and to prevent using anything else
To me, it sounds like a terrible idea to try to enforce this with a macro or similar (and it probably wouldn't work even if you tried). Instead, come up with a better workflow and communicate with anyone who may be involved so they know what to do.
First question, is the document under configuration control? For example, if a bad change is made, do you have a way of going back to a previous version? There are many different configuration management tools available, both free and commercial.
Next, I would strongly recommend making final changes with only one Office suite. Pick either LibreOffice (or Apache OpenOffice - is that what you mean by OpenOffice? The OpenOffice.org suite was forked several years ago) or MS Word to be the official editing tool, but not both.
If you pick MS Word, then people can still make preliminary changes to the document using LibreOffice. However, someone with MS Word will then need to use a Diff tool to see the changes and then use MS Word to incorporate those changes into the document. Or ideally, Track Changes would be turned on to make it easier to see what changes were made and who made them. Comments can also be added to explain why changes were made.
What is even better is to get people to send marked-up PDF files that contain their proposed changes. PDF files cannot be edited, which is good because it avoids the kinds of problems that led you to write this question, and also the formatting changes they made will not appear differently on another computer. However, this requires a certain amount of education so that everyone agrees to do it this way, and in my experience, that's not easy with a diverse group.
If you ever see that someone has made changes to the main document using LibreOffice, you or someone else needs to go back to the latest version not edited by LibreOffice and then use MS Word to incorporate all of the new changes.
At this point, if both suites have been used to edit the document, then I would probably start off with a new blank document and copy all of the text unformatted into it. This would require redoing all tables and other formatting. Otherwise, it's likely to be nearly impossible to get a clean document, and the underlying formatting may have no end to the number of problems that keep popping up.
I collaborate with other researchers and frequently have the following work flow:
I write a draft in Emacs org, then export it to docx.
Other authors make edits using track changes and add comments.
I revise the draft in emacs org.
For step 3, I import back the docx file manually, which typically involves:
- Accepting all track changes.
- C&P'ing text back into the org file, making sure that I do not delete markups (pandoc can help here).
- Putting the comments in a list and making todos and further edits; often I write down a note about what I did to address the comment.
I've been looking for ways to make this process better. I found other discussions of this issue, and it boils down to: if you can, have your collaborators edit the manuscript as a text file (not realistic for me, at list not at this point); or do some manual import similar to the one I described above.
So this post is about your thoughts / ideas regarding a great solution to importing back edited docx files that might become reality in the future, and how it could be done.
I think there are two parts here:
How to automatically import back text without destroying markups such as footnotes, references etc.?
How to automatically extract all the notes and integrate them into the Emacs org file?
For the second question, my vision would be to have some sort of comment blocks above the paragraph of the comment, or a list of headlines, each of them representing a comment and a link to the paragraph. A properties drawer would be a great additional feature, it could have one entry for open/closed and one entry for response / notes.
P.S.: I think this is a real barrier to using text-based manuscript writing and it would be a huge step forward if there was a good way. Even more, with all the capabilities of Emacs org, I bet the end result would be much better then revising a paper within word, which is just painful.
Here's how you might be able to do it
assume all changes are properly marked.
assume you know the "base version" of your org file.
assume every marked change comes with a "before" and an "after".
Then, analyze the .docx (same for .odt) looking for marked changes. Ignore everything else. Take the "before" version of each change, turn it into plain text, and try to find the matching element in the org file, then replace that text with the "after" version.
For comments, you could probably try a similar approach.
Caveat: I have no idea how easy/hard it is to find the marked changes, extract the "before/after" info and turn it into plain text.
Oh, and this will probably only work acceptably for small localized changes, e.g. the kind of thing you might get from a reviewer. For things coming from another author who may end up making larger changes and reorganizations it'll probably break down miserably.
I have been supporting a web application at work for our Call Center unit for about 2 years now. The app is written in ASP.NET 3.5 with SQL server 2005 database. I’ve been asked to expand the call detail section to allow agents to edit the current call note with the ability to revert back to its previous version. Now, that’s all cool but now the manager wants to be able to click on any particular note and see all edits with changes highlighted in yellow (and if something was deleted, he wants to SEE the deleted text crossed out). Actually, what I need is very similar to how Stackoverflow handles edits on their questions. I’ve been thinking about how to go about this and after doing research and Google-ing of course, I am still unsure which route to take. I am fairly new to .NET development. Any ideas on the best technique for highlighting the changes in UI? I am afraid I am going to have to store a copy of the entire note each time they make a change because the manager wants to be able to easily review notes and revert back to ANY version (not just the most recent one) before sending the monthly call report off to our VIP customers. Since this department OFTEN changes their mind on things, I want to make sure the new functionality is scalable and easy to maintain. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. I am really just looking for someone to point me in the right direction; maybe there are some tools out there that can be useful, recommended keywords in Google lookup, etc.
This will be difficult do to.
You'll need a "text editor" control that can not only edit the text, but which can also tell you what changes were made.
You then need to store not only the final text string, but also the list of changes
You'll then need to be able to display the text plus changes, using strike-outs, and different colors for inserts vs. changes
You'll need to do this not only for the changes of a single user, but you'll need to store each users' changes in the database, and will need to be able to display all the changes, all at once.
Your manager should be really sure he needs this.
Some tools for doing the diff for you can be found at Any decent text diff/merge engine for .NET?.
This would entail storing every version like you say. This should allow you to implement it similarly to SO. I seem to recall reading or hearing Jeff mention it, but wasn't able to find it, likely in one of the SO podcasts.
Easiest would be to store the text for each revision, then when the user wants to see the diff use a diff tool to generate the highlighted text.
Here is some Javascript diff code:
http://ejohn.org/projects/javascript-diff-algorithm/
If all the computers have Word installed you may be able to use a Word control to accomplish this. TortoiseSVN has scripts in its program directory which can take two word documents and produce a document with changes highlighted. To see this create c:\aaa.doc and bbb.doc, then install TortoiseSVN and run:
wscript.exe "C:\program files\tortoisesvn\Diff-Scripts\diff-doc.js" c:\aaa.doc c:\bbb.doc //E:javascript
I think you should see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revision_control
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I'm one of those people who can't get anything done without a to-do list. If it isn't on the list it doesn't exist.
Notepad Method:
When I'm programming I've been keeping notepad open with a list of to-do's for my current project. I'll constantly re-arrange these based off priority and I cross them off and move them to the completed section when I'm finished with that particular task.
Code Comments:
Some programmers pepper their projects source code with:
// TODO: Fix this completely atrocious code before anyone sees it
Plus, I know that there are some tools that show you a list of all TODOs in your code as well.
Website Task Tracker:
Remember The Milk
Backpack
Manymoon
Voo2do
Gmail Tasks
TeuxDeux
TodoDodo
Ta-da lists
... and many more
What have you found to be the best method of keeping track of your to-do lists for multiple projects?
Like others, I pepper them about my code, but I use the warning directive to generate a compiler warning too:
#warning TODO: Implement foobar
This way I can still search for "TODO" but they also shout at me whenever I build.
Pen and paper.
Combined with the genious PocketMod, it's totally perfect.
Striking TODOs is soooo satisfying!
I can't speak for other IDE's, but Eclipse will search your project's source files for TODO comments (as well as FIXME and XXX by default) and create tasks for you in the tasks view.
This leads to intriguing situations where you check the tasks view, double-click on a TODO task, and read the comment:
// TODO: Add this functionality.
Eclipse will also add TODO comments when generating certain code blocks, like method implementations, catch blocks for exceptions, etc.
TODO (and other) comments are great with Visual Studio and ReSharper installed:
(source: jetbrains.com)
Although I didn't try it I really like the idea of tests as todos. What else should get you going if not a failed test?
NextAction, from TimeSnapper
Personal Abstract Todos
I use Tomboy Notes or paper to make a quick list of abstract high level tasks. Often when I'm on the phone with my manager, I just need to get things written down.
Source Code Specfic Todos
I use the inline TODO: / #todo comment marker in my code and then use the Netbeans plugins that give me a running list of todos throughout the project. Since Netbeans can aggregate todo markers from multiple projects, it does not make a difference how many different projects I'm running.
Multiperson Tasks / Todos
Once I have to keep track of todos for more than myself, I move to project management software like OpenProj, MS Project, etc. Also, if the todos involve bugs or feature requests, I use our bugtracker. Other todos, can be manged by a helpdesk system as well.
I use ToDoList from AbstractSpoon. It lets you divide your ToDo list into projects and can even be used by a number of users for larger projects using a shared network drive.
For every task in a project i create a new entry in the issue tracker (Bugzilla for me).
A big advantage is that you can track back every changes made by the issue ID.
You can report customers or project members the status of your task.
You can create a new bug type like "task", "todo" or "feature-request".
It's a central solution. No local stuff...
I our development team there is a rule which says: "Do never change any code without a corresponding entry in the issue tracker. Never!"
I use Pen and Paper to jot down notes. I also use TODO/FIXME tags in code that gets highlighted yellow in Vim and tracked by the TODO extension in Komodo.
One of the most useful additions for me has been using Samurize to embed a plain text file onto my desktop (http://lifehacker.com/software/plain-text/geek-to-live--incorporate-text-files-onto-your-desktop-213280.php). I have 3 virtual desktops and it lives on my email desktop which is where I wind up first thing every morning. It contains a text file with the items that I need to do and it rarely runs more than a week ahead.
Wednesday 2/11/2009
- Item 1
- Item 2
Thursday 2/12/2009
- Item 3
I use Executor that has a keyword "todo" that automatically opens gvim with this file when I want to edit/add/remove items. This makes it about 3 keystrokes to get it open and ready to modify. It helps me remember the Monday morning production moves before I get buried in email and meetings. As soon as I edit, it's reflected on the desktop.
Obviously for longer and more detailed things, I rely on Roundup, Outlook reminders, etc. but this has been a handy way to jot things down so they won't get lost in the shuffle.
I use inline TODO: comments as Visual Studio will track these for me, of course I still have to look at the task list to see them. I cannot count the number of times I have found a TODO: comments whilst reviewing some code I thought was complete.
I would make a clear difference between FIXME and TODO. FIXME is a critical and must be fixed before commit/release. TODO can live a bit longer but should be cleaned away eventually.
A simple plain text file (TODO) in the top level of the project's cvs/svn area works for me for simple projects.
Like others have mentioned, I use the standard FIXME/TODO/XXX in my code comments, and then can find the list of tasks within my IDE using their various tools. I also use hudson's task scanner plugin to keep track of everything, since I'm a sucker for graphs.
I created a build task that picks out //TODO: lines from my code files and generates a report I include in team city. It gives you a quick way of see any outstandings on a project without having to check it out.
you can also use the CodeTagsPlugin with Trac
When programming Java in Eclipse, I find it really useful to, as you say "pepper my source code with // TODO: comments - mainly because Eclipse looks up each one in the project and compiles a task list for me =) In Visual Studio, there is a Task List panel, which I use sometimes, but I don't find it as streamlined as just having the comments in Eclipse.
I use eclipse as IDE, which collects all TODO's to a list and shows it in an outline. Very easy and usable.
I use emacs org-mode to keep track of not only code TODOs, but my whole life. It works as an extremely powerful outliner with some spreadsheet and calendar features as well. I use mercurial for lightweight version handling and simple replication between different machings.
It works surprisingly well.
Having done an extensive search for a suitable "to do list" application I settled on mylyn - the one that comes supplied with Eclipse.
It is easy to create and manage tasks. Tasks can be imported and linked to Bugzilla or a number of other different task repositories. It also has a "task context" which enables files that are relevant to a task to be highlighted and those that are irrelevant to be hidden (which is far more useful than I anticipated it would be).
Eclipse tracks your TODO and list them in a proper windows automatically. I find it powerful enough if you don't need advanced features.
I'm quite fond of tracks. It has the flavour of GTD without getting too regimented about it.
I can quickly whack stuff in there as I think of it, and then not have to worry about forgetting after that.
Wow, I just had this question yesterday. After some searching, I settled on the ReminderFox Firefox extension. It's completely integrated into the browser and has pop ups to remind you every time you open your browser when a task is due.
I like Mylyn a lot: integrated into Eclipse, works with many trackers as well as without (local tasks) and realizes new concepts like the focused UI.
There is also Task Scanner Plugin for Hudson (in case it fits in your environment). With that you can track number of TODOs/FIXMEs on your continuous integration build reports.
alt text http://www.86th.org/hudson.jpg
We use the "Open Tasks Trend" feature in Hudson, this works for a slew of languages. For our C# project we have 3 levels of tasks and this is accomplished by different TODO: style comments.
High Priority
Matches on FIXME:, HARDCODED: or HACK:
Medium Priority
Matches on TODO:
Low Priority
Matches on MEH: or CODEREVIEW:
Hudson will then take this list and trend graph it as shown in the picture, as well as have a sortable, filterable list of the tasks and it will display the messages on the web page with links that will take you right to the line in the source code on Hudson.
Plus we can easily setup points of interest for code reviews with CODEREVIEW: and have a nice concise list to print out.
I use Sandglaz and place my todos in 3 columns now, next and later (a little like their blog, but only one row)...and its easy and fast to use. I'm a freelancer so I work on several projects at a time so it works for me
I use pending tests only to remind myself to write tests. I use Rspec, so it has that build it.
For C++ projects (native/ATL):
#ifndef _TODO_H_
#define _TODO_H_
#pragma once
// from atldef.h:
#ifndef _ATL_STRINGIZE
#define __ATL_STRINGIZE(_Value) #_Value
#define _ATL_STRINGIZE(_Value) __ATL_STRINGIZE(_Value)
#endif
// put x in quotes, no need to use #pragma!
#define __TODO(x) __pragma(message(__FILE__"("_ATL_STRINGIZE(__LINE__)") : TODO: "x))
#define __WTF(x) __pragma(message(__FILE__"("_ATL_STRINGIZE(__LINE__)") : WTF?! "x))
// prefer to use ISO-formatted date
#define __BUGFIX(date, x) __pragma(message(__FILE__"("_ATL_STRINGIZE(__LINE__)") : BUGFIX: "#date" "x))
#define __CHANGE(date, x) __pragma(message(__FILE__"("_ATL_STRINGIZE(__LINE__)") : CHANGE: "#date" "x))
#endif _TODO_H_
Looking for something like that for C#.
doxygen can track such issues
One of our source code modules is absolutely littered with inline #pragma todo lines. The build output is polluted so we never can really tell when there are any new compiler warnings. Some of the todos have been there for years and the original developer has long since left the company.
When I have many many todos I discovered that it is useless to track them. You end up with hundreds of todos that can't be done.
Only write what you are asked (boss ) and do what bring the biggest benefits everyday.
I however have a next list. I wrote what I'm currently doing at the top and things I need to fix to complete it. My next list can be done in hours or days usually.
I have the in my opinion odd request to close a wizard form as Done or OK if Enter was pressed on the keyboard even if the OK/DONE button is not focused.
In my opinion that would be a usability mistake. For example: In the wizard you may have multiple controls, buttons, check boxes, multiple line controls and they all have a different behavior on actions from the ENTER key. And don't forget the other buttons in the navigation of the wizard, what if they are focused?
Should these controls don't react on Enter like expected before? Should they do their actions but in other cases where Enter does no further action for the control it should close the form == inconsistent?
I think that is a typical request where the needs of one person would help him but confuse many other.
In my opinion Wizards are very special because they are not only made to make things easier but also very often focus on people with less experience with the functionality of an application. So I take every request serious and try to look into all arguments for and against the request.
Is my point of view to narrow? Are there some usability studies or guidelines especially for Wizards to backup my opinion or maybe proof me wrong?
Thank you very much!
Michael
Well, here's the thing: there are two kinds of users you have to take into account here.
First kind of users are the Baby Boomers and Gen Xers (e.g., people who have been using computers in the 70s/80s) who are accustomed to pressing Enter to move to the next field. These are the ones who learned how to use computers in terminals/consoles and enter means you're finished typing on that field and would move on to the next.
Second kind of users are those who were weaned on Windows. These people are used to pressing the Tab key to move to the next field. Pressing enter to them means they are done with the whole thing.
So which convention should you follow? That will depend on whether you're targetting the first or second type of users, the environment (Windows or Web?), and the OS.
If you're targetting Windows forms, it is much advisable to be consistent to the OS (e.g., letting people use Tab instead of Enter) for form entry. In the web, you're in a quandary, since Enter is trapped by the web browser as a submit event.
In the end the only useful advice I can offer is to try it out with your target customers and see whether they prefer Enter over Tab.
I think the key is to test. You can't really guess what your users will find comfortable, you have to watch them try it. Especially since there are multiple incompatible standards you could follow, you are just going to have to see if this change works for most users in your audience.
I would be of the same opinion, perhaps mention it to the client and let them use the final version in both modes. I guess you have to give them what they ask for when they are paying.
To me this also seems to be an odd request but as Paul says, if the client wants it, then the client gets it.
However from a usability/comprehension standpoint, I would make the border of the ok/done button much thicker then normal so that it stands out a bit and maybe indicate to people that it has special behaviour.
Also I would perhaps make a note in the dialog/wizard box that hitting enter will cause the wizard to close as if the OK/Done button had been pressed.
While the one user may know that hitting enter will close it, unless someone else is specifically told, they will not be expecting that behaviour.
I think you should have a finish page to facilitate this. If the user presses enter by mistake the worst is that he won't finish the wizard, only go to the next page (which may be the finish page). This is good for situations where nuclear bombs are controlled by said wizards.
On the finish page pressing enter would finish the wizard (and blow up Iraq, bring down a satellite, or erase Jimbob's farm).
If the user can re-run the wizard I don't think it would be disasterous if they accidentally finished it.
Remember, wizards should never take any action until they are finished, in case the user cancels or such. Confirmation dialog boxes on a finish are tedious and I will hunt you down if you use them, I think once the user has finished the wizard he is pretty sure about his intent.
Maybe the client has good reasons for it.
Imagine the following situation:
A screen with lots of optional fields that gets opened/closed a lot and where data accuracy is not really critical.
Think of a little program that pops up every half hour to ask you what you have been doing, for what client and maybe some notes so it can gather this info and generate your timesheet.
Being able to open up the screen, enter the info and close it all really quick and with as little hassle as possible is way more important than the accuracy of the data.
I can imagine lots of situations where being able to confirm the field without having focus can be usefull.
Is this request perhaps because the UAT that was undertaken on the wizard involved users that weren't aware that pressing ENTER will have the same effect as clicking the button?
If when the final page of the wizard is displayed, the 'Finish' button is already highlighted (as I would expect) that maybe it's a matter of giving the user some cue that they can also press ENTER at this point.
If you take Google for example, I seem to remember that if you tend to systematically type your search term in and then click the 'Search' button with the mouse, a message is displayed at the top of the search results that kindly hints to you that you can also just press ENTER. Obviously, this is not something that can easily be done in your case because this is the last page of the wizard, but maybe this is the sort of thing that your client is trying to get you to engineer around?
Educate your clients. Show them some documentation as why that suggestion might not be a good usability practice.
Some reputable website will work best, as clients will usually believe a third party before believing you. After all, to them you are probably just being lazy and don't want to work more.
If the client still doesn't concede, then just do what they want, and warn them that it is not the good thing to do.
Although in your case, the "good thing to do" seems a little on the gray area.
I would argue that you could possibly use this functionality to move forward through the wizard but ONLY if no other action had been taken on that page.
The moment a field is completed or a button clicked/highlighted or the cursor is moved from the default position, the Enter functionality should revert to that of the standard OS.
As others have said, clearly this would only work if those using the wizard were made aware of this as part of their application training, but it might prove useful for moving quickly through un-used pages of the wizard to get to where the user needs to be.
Doesn't matter. Choose and be consistant in all your applications