Simple Pomodoro Timer with Ruby and Gosu

The Pomodoro Technique is a time management method developed by Francesco Cirillo in the late 1980s. It uses a timer to break work into intervals—traditionally 25 minutes—separated by short breaks. These intervals are called pomodoros (from the Italian word for tomato). The method aims to improve focus and productivity through frequent breaks. (Wikipedia)

This is a simple Pomodoro timer with a minimal graphical interface, built in Ruby using Gosu for fun.

Installation

Since this gem uses Gosu to launch the graphical interface, you’ll need to install Gosu dependencies first.

Mac OS X

Gosu is built on top of SDL 2. Install Homebrew and run:

brew install sdl2

Linux

You’ll need to install the following packages (names may vary by distribution):

libsdl2-dev
libsdl2-ttf-dev
libpango1.0-dev
libgl1-mesa-dev
libfreeimage-dev
libopenal-dev
libsndfile-dev

For more details, check Gosu's Wiki.

Installing the Gem

Once dependencies are installed, you can install the gem:

gem install pomodoro-gui

Usage

Once installed, you can view available options by running:

pomodoro-gui -h

Example output:

Usage: pomodoro-gui [options]
    -r, --rest [REST]                Choose rest time (in minutes)
    -i, --interval [INTERVAL]        Choose pomodoro length time (in minutes)
        --version                    Show version
    -h, --help                       Show this message

To start a Pomodoro session with default values (25-minute work sessions, 5-minute breaks), simply run:

pomodoro-gui

Where Can I Find the Code?

Check out the full source code on GitHub. Feel free to clone, modify, and experiment with it! 😃