Testing

Here’s What Happened: Five Things We Learned About Unit Tests from David Scott Bernstein

Learning, sharing, growth. Those three things are what brought together 60 software crafters on a Thursday evening in Seattle, Washington. David Scott Bernstein, the author...more.

Legacy Code: Spying On Global Functions

As developers we often find ourselves in a situation where we first need to get an existing piece of functionality under test before we can...more.

Myths about Unit Tests

Most modern languages that we use today provide tools and documentation for unit tests, which make it simpler to test our code. If unit testing...more.

API Assumption Tests

In any non-trivial codebase we rely on third-party dependencies. These dependencies can be libraries or frameworks, but can also be external services that provide an...more.

Forcing Function in Software Development Processes

I first came across the idea of forcing function from reading The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande. The premise is that in fields such as...more.

Optimizing your workflow with Vim

When I first started working in Vim, reading Bram Moolenaar's Seven Habits of Effective Text Editing was very helpful. In it, he outlines three fundamental...more.

Getting Rails on Track - Part 3: Controllers

In this multi-series blog post, we're going hands-on through the steps that can help transform the design of a default Rails application into one with...more.

Getting Rails on Track - Part 2: Views

In this multi-series blog post, we're going hands-on through the steps that can help transform the design of a default Rails application into one with...more.

Getting Rails on Track - Part 1: Models

In this multi-series blog post, we're going hands-on through the steps that can help transform the design of a default Rails application into one with...more.

Better RSpec Stubs

RSpec is a very powerful tool for testing applications. It's been around for a while and provides a rich feature set. One thing that RSpec...more.

Refactor and Source-Control Your CI

If you're using Jenkins, then you may have a job that has an "Execute Shell" step to build your project. The contents of that step...more.

Speed up your tests with an in-memory filesystem

You've probably heard about what a unit test is. In fact, you may have even written one or two in your lifetime. Great! If you've...more.

TDD - From the Inside Out or the Outside In?

Often the hardest part of programming is knowing where to start. With test-driven development the right place to begin is with a test, but when...more.

Running tests in Vim

chris jordan
13 Jun 2016
Testing
Ruby
Tools

Being able to run your unit tests quickly from Vim is vital when doing test-driven development. I've often seen developers using Vim to write code,...more.

How TDD can make your team happier

What makes a software project a joy to work on? Conversely, what can make working on a software project excruciating? For me, I'm the happiest...more.

Loosely Coupled Tests

Test Driven Development (TDD) has a plethora of benefits, but the one that stands out for me is how it helps to unify a team....more.

The Cumulative Effect of Inefficient Workflows

In 2009, I started an internship at a Los Angeles-based audio/video post production studio. The audio engineer I was learning from was an avid musician...more.

Flaky crusts: Good for pies; bad for test suites

Unit tests that fail intermittently, without exposing any production bugs, are the worst. Like the boy who cried wolf, they reduce our confidence that they're...more.

Apprentice Blog of the Week: The Dangers of Ruby Gems

Ever since I first began learning Ruby a little over a year ago at The Starter League, I've been wary of using gems. I remember...more.

Apprentice Blog of the Week: Stubbing Authentication and Authorization in Controller Specs

Controllers are powerful and complicated objects that easily accumulate responsibilities. Even when following the classic Rails convention of "Skinny Controllers, Fat Models," controllers still have...more.

Combining Clojure and ClojureScript Libraries

ClojureScript is an incredible new project that any Clojurian can appreciate. What could be better than replacing vexing JavaScript with the clean, flowing syntax of...more.

Check Your Work

Unit test frameworks automated the tedious work of verifying bits and pieces of code by hand, replacing a haphazard process of trial, error, and judiciously...more.

Test Extraction and Readability

andrew kelly
15 Oct 2013
Coding
Testing

The overt purpose of testing is to ensure that code does what is expected of it, but tests themselves also act as documentation. Highly readable...more.

Ruby DeRailed: Fast Tests

I use TDD as my development workflow. Red, green, refactor. It creates a quick feedback cycle, allows me to build momentum, and gives me confidence...more.

Using Katas To Improve

chong kim
26 Sep 2013
Coding
Testing
Tools

Some Background Thoughts There is an experiment from Richard Held and Alan Hein who raised kittens in total darkness. For a short period during the...more.

A Case Against Cucumber

kevin liddle
18 Sep 2013
Testing
Tools
Ruby

Cucumber has been a popular tool in Ruby’s TDD community for a while now. It offers a way to write tests in a way that...more.

The Right Tests in the Wrong Order

For those new to Test Driven Development, understanding how to take small, incremental steps when writing your tests can be a confounding practice. Even the...more.

Strive for Simplicity

A few weeks ago I had an opportunity to pair with Uncle Bob. We were going to pair on a message queue convenience wrapper I...more.

Migrating from RSpec Dynamic Mocks to Surrogate - Part 2

eric meyer
13 Jan 2013
Coding
Testing

This blog is Part 2 of a series of blogs about migrating to Surrogate. Part 1 can be found here. If you are unfamiliar with...more.

Migrating from RSpec Dynamic Mocks to Surrogate - Part 1

eric meyer
13 Jan 2013
Coding
Testing

Here's the situation: You use RSpec. You like RSpec. But you want more confidence from your tests than you get with RSpec's dynamic mocks while...more.

Testing Recursion

cory foy
01 Jan 2013
Testing
Ruby

A short post to start the new year. Let's imagine that you are building an application that requires the application of a specific algorithm, but...more.

Welcome To The Gilded Rose (in Clojure)

There's a special sort of satisfication I get from turning absolutely awful code into a well-tested, well-factored program. Not only have I increased the amount...more.

With Proper TDD, You Get That

dariusz pasciak
18 Jul 2012
Testing

How does one develop software the "old-fashioned" way? Here is how my very first, non-TDD* version of Tic-Tac-Toe went. First thing's first - I need...more.

Test Driven Assembly

michael baker
07 Jun 2012
Testing
Tools

I tend to be a skeptical person. When I encounter a new idea, I often start on the offense. I try to force the new...more.

A Scope Heuristic

One of my first exposures to TDD was through a code kata. I was mortified. The performer test-drove his way to a simple function for...more.

Avoiding Common Errors in Your Jasmine Test Suite

mike jansen
13 Nov 2011
Tools
Testing

Working with Javascript can be, at best, a mildly frustrating experience. As I've started to work more with Jasmine and Backbone.js, I've added some simple...more.

That's Not Yours

eric smith
27 Oct 2011
Coding
Testing

My first exposure to mock objects was in C++, where they are practically indecipherable to the TDD newbie, so I didn't use them. That may...more.

Testing Code That's hard to test

josh cheek
01 Oct 2011
Coding
Testing

So if you're like me, you're 5'10" and sport a ruggedly awesome beard. And if you're really like me, you swallowed the T/BDD pill years...more.

10 Ways to Do Acceptance Testing Wrong

doug bradbury
26 Apr 2011
Testing

If there is one thing I’ve learned about Acceptance Testing (AT) it’s that there are a lot of ways to mess it up. I’ve made...more.

A scenario where tests help facilitate compatibility and communication

steve kim
25 Feb 2011
Testing
Ruby

Let's start off with some backstory: there was a time when only one Ruby implementation existed in the world: Matz's own Ruby Interpreter (MRI) written...more.

That‘s Not In My String!

colin jones
02 Feb 2011
Coding
Testing
Ruby

We encountered a strange spec failure today in our continuous integration build. It’s a Rails project, we’re using RSpec, and this was the failing expectation...more.

Clean Acceptance Tests

lihsuan lung
18 Oct 2010
Testing

Acceptance testing was one of the first challenges I faced during my apprenticeship. I learned that complexity scales in proportion to the number of scenarios,...more.

TDD in education, they're doing it wrong

eric smith
09 Apr 2010
Coding
Testing

This blog post originally appeared on a blog I maintain for my current game development class. Generally speaking my posts over there are pretty specific...more.

Up and running with TDD on Android

A couple of weeks ago, I happened to be in the right place at the right time (the first ORD Session) when Google hooked a...more.

When is a Mock not a Mock

eric smith
10 Jan 2009
Testing

A couple of weeks ago I had to add a feature to some code that was written almost two years ago. It was a pretty...more.

Lessons Of A Craftsman: Are You Test Driving, Or Just Writing Tests?

Recently I wrote the beginnings of a blackjack game in Java, and I found myself making a common error. The Java gameplay mechanic uses a...more.

Test Driven Debugging

eric smith
11 Oct 2007
Testing

I hate debugging. Loathe it, despise it, pick your synonym and I’ll use it. Computer programming is building something out of nothing, making the computer...more.

Test Driving Module Methods—Part Two

eric smith
15 Jun 2007
Testing

Ever write an entire blog post, spend significant time on it, correct it, and eventually grow to love it, only to discover two months later...more.

Three Reasons to Use FitNesse

micah martin
19 Jan 2007
Coding
Testing

Using FitNesse allows you to communicate with the customer up front. Before a line of code is written, you can have all the behavior expressed...more.

Getting started with Rails and FitNesse

paul pagel
15 Jan 2007
Coding
Testing
Ruby

This is intended to be a tutorial to get you started using FitNesse with ruby on Rails. There is some explanation needed about FitNesse, Fit,...more.

BOC

micah martin
12 Nov 2006
Testing

BOC is a testing pattern that Unclebob briefly mentioned on fitnesse.org shortly after it was published. It describes the typical steps taken in an automated...more.

Self Shunt

paul pagel
11 Sep 2006
Testing

The self-shunt method of testing has been conflicting for me. Self-shunt is a good testing pattern to test observers/views. A colleague of mine has started...more.

Over Mocking

paul pagel
07 Sep 2006
Testing

I’ve noticed using more mocks lately. Instead of using them sparingly for controlling services which are not instrumental to what I am testing, I’m essentially...more.

Fresh Testing

paul pagel
07 Sep 2006
Testing

Sometimes I sit down to write a test on something I haven’t worked on before or don’t know intimately, and I just can’t write the...more.

Prelude to the Mock Off

micah martin
07 Sep 2006
Testing

David Chelimsky puts it gently…We’ve actually had some heated arguments about these mocking frameworks and it’a all kinda silly. In the end we’re writing good...more.

Testing

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