Author here, I wanted to track how much time I spend on certain feature branches. Existing solutions either asked me to create yet another online account or required me activate/deactivate timers manually. When your internet is connection is flaky or you forget a timer once any estimations instantly become useless. I wanted something that was automatic and 100% offline, so this weekend I created “Timeglass”. It uses file monitoring and git hooks to make sure you’ll never forget to start or stop your timer ever again. Let me know what you think!
Though this will catch the obvious cases where you should be billing but aren't while actively writing code, what about doing research or reading? Or code reviews? In a sufficiently complicated codebase, it might be the case that you're reading and thinking a lot longer than you're actively writing…
It is pretty neat to see the time spent actively writing each commit, though, and the file monitoring provides a better check than just looking at the delta between timestamps, so bravo for that!
I use a fully automated timetracking tool called WakaTime. It also tracks only active coding. But it solves the issue you're talking about quite well by having this kind of chart on the dashboard: http://i.imgur.com/k6prAmk.png
It's easy to see when you started, and when you took a break.
Of course this won't solve "today I only researched" (although web plugins are in the pipeline: https://wakatime.com/download)
Disclaimer, not affiliated. Just a long time user.
Yes agreed, such measurements are outside the scope. It doesn't tell: "I spent 1h developing this feature" but rather: "I spend 1h writing the code that embodies this feature". It is data for the developer's side, to give him/her the insight he needs on code creation, and is not - in its current form - usable for the project manager.
