What are Common Parameters?
Common parameters are parameters that are repeated across multiple actions in a CLI context. For example, I might have a CLI that has takes a --verbose
flag to switch on verbose output for all of my actions. Rather than require that the CLI developer add a bool verbose
switch to every action in his/her Command
implementation, Odin allows you declare a property on the Command
implementation as a [Parameter]
.
Example
[Description("Provides search capabilities for books.")]
public class SearchCommand : Command
{
[Parameter]
[Alias("s")]
[Description("The order to sort the results of the search.")]
public SortBooksBy SortBy { get; set; }
[Action]
[Description("Searches books by author.")]
public void Author(
[Alias("a")]
[Description("The author of the book being searched for.")]
string author)
{
Logger.Info("Find books by author '{0}'; sort results by '{1}'.\n", author, SortBy);
}
[Action(IsDefault = true)]
[Description("Searches books by title.")]
public void Title(
[Alias("t")]
[Description("The title of the book being searched for.")]
string title)
{
Logger.Info("Find books by title '{0}'; sort results by '{1}'.\n", title, SortBy);
}
[Action]
[Description("Searches books by release date.")]
public void ReleaseDate(
[Alias("f")]
[Description("The release date from which to search.")]
DateTime? from = null,
[Alias("t")]
[Description("The release date to which to search.")]
DateTime? to = null)
{
Logger.Info("Find books by release date: '{0}' - '{1}'; sort results by '{2}'.\n", from, to, SortBy);
}
}
In the above example, SortBy
is available to all of the actions defined on the Command
. It can be set at the command-line by passing the --sort-by <value>
switch. Odin will parse and set the switch before executing the action.
This functionality is now available in version 0.2 of the Odin-Commands nuget package.
I love TeamCity as a build/ci tool. I really do. However, I have noticed from time to time when I go searching their bug-tracking system that I’m in the midst of reporting a bug they had previously fixed. I’ve seen this more than once so this led me to wonder aloud on twitter if the TeamCity developers practiced TDD.
@ISuperGeek We don't use TDD, but we have bunch of Tests that cover the majority of TC functionality. Please see: https://t.co/yvrOzi65wR
— JetBrains TeamCity (@teamcity) February 4, 2016
I followed the link to their blog post. In their discussion of how they do Continuous Delivery within their organization I would draw your attention to step 2:
While the build is running, two developers from the team (Duty Devs) review all commits made by the team during the day and if they both agree commits won’t break critical parts of the application, such as areas responsible for running and scheduling builds and build agent auto-upgrade, they put a special tag on the build marking it as “safe for deployment”.
emphasis added
Now let me draw your attention to Jeff Atwood’s wonderfully snarky blog post, Works on My Machine. Step 3:
Cause one code path in the code you’re checking in to be executed. The preferred way to do this is with ad-hoc manual testing of the simplest possible case for the feature in question. Omit this step if the code change was less than five lines, or if, in the developer’s professional opinion, the code change could not possibly result in an error.
emphasis added
Again, I love TeamCity. I think it’s a great product. I think it’s build-chains feature makes it far and away a better CI tool than any of the alternatives–especially in an enterprise-y SOA context. It is not my intention to shame them. Still, the producers of a tool widely used to perform the Continuous Integration side of TDD does not itself practice TDD.
Wow.