Is Continuous Integration important for a solo developer? [closed]

Question

I've never used CI tools before, but from what I've read, I'm not sure it would provide any benefit to a solo developer that isn't writing code every day.

First - what benefits does CI provide to any project?

Second - who should use CI? Does it benefit all developers?

Answer 1

The basic concept of CI is that you have a system that builds the code and runs automated tests everytime someone makes a commit to the version control system. These tests would include unit and functional tests, or even behavior driven tests.

The benefit is that you know - immediately - when someone has broken the build.
This means either:

A. They committed code that prevents compilation, which would screw any one up

B. They committed code that broke some tests, which either means they introduced a bug that needs to be fixed, or the tests need to be updated to reflect the change in the code.

If you are a solo developer, CI isn't quite as useful if you are in a good habit of running your tests before a commit, which is what you should be doing. That being said, you could develop a bad habit of letting the CI do your tests for you.

As a solo programmer, it mainly comes down to discipline. Using CI is a useful skill to have, but you want to avoid developing any bad habits that wouldn't translate to a team environment.

Answer 2

As other people have noted, CI does have advantages for a solo developer. But the question you have to ask yourself is; is it worth the overhead? If you're like me, it will probably take an hour or two to set up a CI system for a project, just because I'll have to allocate a server, set up all the networking, and install the software. Remember that the CI system will only be saving you a few seconds at a time. For a solo developer, these times aren't likely to add up to more than the time it took to do the CI setup.

However, if you've never set up a CI system before, I recommend doing it just for the sake of learning how to do it. It doesn't take so long that it isn't worth the learning experience.