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Level 0 / Project 09 - Daily Checklist Writer

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Concept This project — Quiz Flashcards Diagram Browser

Estimated time: 25 minutes

Focus

  • write text output files

Why this project exists

Read a list of tasks from a file and generate a formatted checklist with numbered items and checkboxes. This is your first project that writes output files, not just prints to the terminal.

Run (copy/paste)

Use <repo-root> as the folder containing this repository's README.md.

cd <repo-root>/projects/level-0/09-daily-checklist-writer
python project.py --input data/sample_input.txt --title "Daily Checklist"
pytest -q

Expected terminal output

=== Daily Checklist ===

  1. [ ] Review yesterday's notes
  2. [ ] Complete Python exercise
  3. [ ] Read one chapter of documentation

Checklist written to data/checklist.txt
4 passed

Expected artifacts

  • data/output.txt (formatted checklist)
  • data/output.json (JSON summary)
  • Passing tests
  • Updated notes.md

Checkpoint: Baseline code runs and all tests pass. Commit your work before continuing.

Alter it (required) — Extension

  1. Add a --header flag that puts a custom title at the top of the checklist (e.g. "Monday Tasks").
  2. Add priority markers -- lines starting with ! get a [!] prefix instead of [ ].
  3. Re-run script and tests.

Break it (required) — Core

  1. Use an empty task list -- does format_checklist() return something sensible or crash?
  2. Add tasks with only whitespace -- do blank tasks get numbered or skipped?
  3. Use a task file with 100+ items -- does the numbering still align correctly?

Fix it (required) — Core

  1. Handle the empty-list case by returning a "(no tasks)" message.
  2. Ensure load_tasks() strips whitespace and skips blank lines.
  3. Add a test for the empty-task-list edge case.

Checkpoint: All modifications done, tests still pass. Good time to review your changes.

Explain it (teach-back)

  1. Why does format_checklist() use enumerate(tasks, start=1) instead of a manual counter?
  2. What does [ ] checkbox format represent and where is it used (Markdown, GitHub issues)?
  3. Why write the checklist to a .txt file instead of JSON?
  4. Where would checklist generation appear in real software (project management tools, daily standup reports)?

Mastery check

You can move on when you can: - run baseline without docs, - explain one core function line-by-line, - break and recover in one session, - keep tests passing after your change.

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