Reducks

			           ,-.
         ,--' ~.).
       ,'         `.
      ; (((__   __)))
      ;  ( (#) ( (#)
      |   \_/___\_/|
     ,"  ,-'    `__".           .
    (   ( ._   ____`.)--._        _
     `._ `-.`-' \(`-'  _  `-. _,-' `-/`.
      ,')   `.`._))  ,' `.   `.  ,','  ;
    .'   .    `--'  /     ).   `.      ;
   ;      `-       /     '  )         ;
   \                       ')       ,'
    \                     ,'       ;
     \               `~~~'       ,'
      `.                      _,'
quack!  `.                ,--'
          `-._________,--'

Reducks is a tool to create animated visualizations of work on either a single repository, or a series of repositories that match a regular expression pattern, to help give a different perspective of work done in git. Consider it like rubber-ducking for your workflows and processes for teams.

Reducks uses a few visualization tools to generate gifs and videos using open-source projects like Gource and Code_Swarm to visualize contribution to projects.

Important notice about diversity and meritocracy

Reducks is neither trying to shame project members into contributing more nor reward consistent / constant committers to a project. This is supposed to be a fun little tool which displays commit history in yet another medium. This tool runs the same risks of being used like the GitHub contribution graph, which has been said to be harmful to contributors on various occasions.

Links about burnout, gamification and the contribution graph

The links below are some writing and discussion on the Github contribution graph.

• https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11404482 "Hacker News submission / discussion about the GitHub issue"
• isaacs/github#627 "GitHub issue talking about the Graph being bad"
• http://erik.io/blog/2016/04/01/how-github-contribution-graph-is-harmful/ "Blog post about how harmful the graph is"
• https://zachholman.com/posts/streaks/ "Blog post about streaks and gamification"
• http://geoff.greer.fm/2015/01/07/burnout-is-in-the-mind/ "Blog post about how burnout is in the mind"

Knowing what this tool could be used for, how is it different?

Reducks is not envisioned as a meritocracy tool. The default configuration will only generate anonymized visualizations which show the work being done without singling out individuals on a project.

This tool is meant to be used is to help visualize contributions to a sprint. It's yet another medium to display how we work on projects to people outside the project itself. This makes it a useful tool for debriefing and retrospectives.

As with anything dealing with exposing how something is made, remember to use caution and empathy. Revealing how the soup is made can sometimes put a bad taste in one's mouth. Ignorance is bliss and all that.

Installation

In order to use Reducks, you will need to install gource, ffmpeg, and supercollider. If you're using macOS and Homebrew, you should be able to easily install them with the following commands.

brew install gource
brew install ffmpeg
brew install --cask supercollider

After those dependencies are met, you should be able to run the scripts in the source/ directories to create visualizations, animated gifs, or mpeg videos for your repositories.

Better guidance around installation

TODO

Development

Please refer to the contributing documentation.

License

Please refer to the license documentation.

Dependencies

Please refer to the dependencies documentation.