For our first meetup of 2025 exploring the Mastermind game will allow plenty of opportunities to discuss and experiment with TDD, Agile, and development principles and patterns. The environment has been chosen to focus on those topics, and not create a high learning curve to participate:

  1. The game because it offers multiple opportunities for discussion.
  2. Python is chosen for the environment because of the common C-like syntax, the prevalence of use, and that both object-oriented and functional programming topcis may be addressed.
  3. Visual Studio Code will be the IDE, because of the price tag, the available extensions, and it is the interface for GitHub Codespaces.
  4. The project is configured in such a way as to be developed using a local Python installation or in a Codespace at GitHub if you prefer not to (or cannot) install Python on your computer.

The project repository is located https://github.com/cleancoderscollaborative/mastermind. We expect that members may join midway through our projects, so the most up-to-date work will be pushed to GitHub as we progress. The repository README looks intense, but do not get discouraged. It contains the step-by-step instructions to set up your own development environment for Mac, Windows, or Linux. Or, if you prefer, how to set up a virtual Linux environment using a GitHub Codespace. And if you are experienced with Python and GitHub, you may not even need these instructions.