| 1 | -*- mode: text; fill-column: 55 -*- |
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| 2 | |
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| 3 | The practice of Extreme Programming brings about new |
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| 4 | ways of programming, collaborating and |
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| 5 | communicating. There is relatively little support for |
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| 6 | these in traditional development tools, which instead |
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| 7 | provide many features not ever used for Extreme |
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| 8 | Programming. |
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| 9 | |
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| 10 | The principal aim of the XP Dojo project is to provide |
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| 11 | *a self-contained, simple tool which fullfills the |
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| 12 | needs of an Extreme Programming team*. In doing so, we |
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| 13 | also hope: |
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| 14 | |
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| 15 | - to explore some new ways of practising Extreme |
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| 16 | Programming which require support from tools |
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| 17 | - to facilitate adoption of Extreme Programming by |
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| 18 | automating or simplifying the satisfaction of |
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| 19 | traditional needs (tracking, tracability, |
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| 20 | reporting...) |
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| 21 | - to explore and enable distributed Extreme |
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| 22 | Programming, in particular for open source projects |
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| 23 | including XP Dojo itself. |
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| 24 | |
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| 25 | ** Presentation |
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| 26 | |
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| 27 | XP Dojo is a common (virtual) location where all the |
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| 28 | participants in the project can assemble to further the |
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| 29 | project by practicing the art of Extreme Programming. |
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| 30 | |
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| 31 | It provides a central repository for all the code, |
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| 32 | tests and information related to a project. It provides |
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| 33 | for the specific kinds of collaborative work required |
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| 34 | by XP. The Dojo provides three interfaces: |
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| 35 | |
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| 36 | - A rich client, which provides the most features and |
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| 37 | is an XP-dedicated IDE. |
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| 38 | - A simplified Web client, which provides universal |
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| 39 | remote access but fewer features. |
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| 40 | - A fully scriptable, textual interface, which can be |
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| 41 | used by the team to specialize XP Dojo, and also |
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| 42 | allows some features to be used in conjunction with |
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| 43 | external tools (your favourite IDE, or your current |
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| 44 | source control tool, for example). |
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| 45 | |
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| 46 | Initially, XP Dojo will support programming in Erlang |
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| 47 | and C. We would like to extend it to other languages |
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| 48 | but have no definite plans. |
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| 49 | |
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| 50 | ** Design philosophy |
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| 51 | |
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| 52 | The role of XP Dojo is not to make decisions for you or |
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| 53 | to enforce a process. It is to simplify rote tasks, and |
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| 54 | to perform complex computations that enable programmers |
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| 55 | to make better-informed decisions, to explore their |
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| 56 | consequences, or reverse them. |
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| 57 | |
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| 58 | It should be possible to use XP Dojo for ordinary, |
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| 59 | non-XP programming! However, Dojo should make XP so |
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| 60 | easy, and its advantages so clear, that it is tempting |
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| 61 | to follow the XP process. |
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| 62 | |
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| 63 | ** Most extreme features |
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| 64 | |
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| 65 | XP Dojo is designed around test-driven development. For |
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| 66 | example, the code browser automatically displays tests |
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| 67 | side-by-side with the corresponding code. Writing a |
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| 68 | test for a new function will automatically generate all |
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| 69 | the boilerplate code for the module and function. The |
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| 70 | tests are automatically and continuously run in the |
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| 71 | background. |
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| 72 | |
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| 73 | XP Dojo incorporates its own, revolutionary, revision |
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| 74 | control system, which is completely designed for |
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| 75 | Extreme Programming and can be completely transparent |
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| 76 | to users. |
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| 77 | |
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| 78 | Of course, XP Dojo enables pair programming, in ways |
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| 79 | that are useful whether you are in the same room or on |
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| 80 | the other side of the world. |
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| 81 | |
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| 82 | ** Overview of main stories |
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| 83 | |
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| 84 | *** Pair programming |
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| 85 | |
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| 86 | Choose from a list of connected users to become |
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| 87 | someone's copilot. Only the driver may modify the |
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| 88 | code, but the copilot can see exactly what the driver |
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| 89 | is doing (including the cursor position, the selection, |
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| 90 | mouse movement, button presses etc.) |
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| 91 | |
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| 92 | Either user may switch drivers. |
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| 93 | |
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| 94 | The copilot may also browse other parts of the code |
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| 95 | without affecting what the driver is doing. |
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| 96 | |
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| 97 | A special "challenge-response" mode switches drivers |
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| 98 | automatically every time the tests change status (from |
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| 99 | green to red). |
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| 100 | |
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| 101 | If you are not in the same room, activate voice |
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| 102 | transmission. |
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| 103 | |
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| 104 | Look at a graph representing how much or how recently |
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| 105 | you have paired with the other members of the project. |
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| 106 | |
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| 107 | *** Test driven development |
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| 108 | |
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| 109 | The current status of the unit tests (green = pass, |
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| 110 | yellow = not runnable, red = failures) is updated at |
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| 111 | every keystroke. |
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| 112 | |
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| 113 | The current status of the acceptance tests (n° of |
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| 114 | passes, n° of regressions, n° waiting to pass) is |
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| 115 | updated every time the unit tests are green. |
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| 116 | |
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| 117 | Test code and application code is automatically |
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| 118 | displayed side by side. |
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| 119 | |
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| 120 | Create or modify a module or function by adding a |
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| 121 | failing test. A stub is inferred from the test. |
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| 122 | |
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| 123 | In the background, XP Dojo continuously performs |
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| 124 | mutations on the code and warns the programmer if any |
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| 125 | mutation did not cause a test to fail. |
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| 126 | |
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| 127 | *** Refactoring |
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| 128 | |
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| 129 | XP Dojo provides support for automatic or |
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| 130 | computer-assisted refactoring. |
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| 131 | |
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| 132 | *** Continuous integration |
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| 133 | |
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| 134 | A development session is automatically created by any |
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| 135 | change to the code or tests which result in a failed |
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| 136 | unit test. As soon as all the unit tests pass again, |
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| 137 | the changes are automatically committed and the session |
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| 138 | is over. |
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| 139 | |
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| 140 | XP Dojo interprets all changes to code as a refactoring |
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| 141 | (i.e. a semantic, logical change, not a line-by-line |
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| 142 | change). Each time a development session is committed, |
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| 143 | its "semantic change list" can be automatically aplied |
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| 144 | to all other active sessions, which are thus |
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| 145 | automatically updated. Because the changes applied to |
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| 146 | them are semantic, the result is always correct code. |
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| 147 | |
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| 148 | XP Dojo extends continuous integration to continuous |
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| 149 | deployment. Release packages are built automatically, |
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| 150 | and acceptance tests are carried out using the latest |
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| 151 | release package. Each time an additional acceptance |
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| 152 | test passes, a release can be automatically deployed to |
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| 153 | subscribed users. For Erlang applications, this can |
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| 154 | result in automatic hot code update without |
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| 155 | interrupting the application. |
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| 156 | |
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| 157 | *** Collective code ownership |
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| 158 | |
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| 159 | XP Dojo stores code as an abstract syntax tree, not as |
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| 160 | source files, so code is automatically displayed |
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| 161 | according to a unique (project-wide configurable) |
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| 162 | style. |
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| 163 | |
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| 164 | Look at a graph representing how much or how recently |
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| 165 | you have worked in various parts of the code. |
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| 166 | |
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