Category Archives: testing

Rails Deployment & Testing There are some really nice tools available for deployment and testing rails. Below is a brief description of some of the ones I’ve been using with success. Capistrano I remember in the early days of my … Continue reading →

While driving design with unit tests, I often break behaviors out into separate classes, both to increase cohesion, and as a side effect, increase testability.  Occasionally, I run into situations where I have some sort of environmental variable that never … Continue reading →

I’ve written hundreds of tests, read dozens of articles and listened to several presentations on unit testing, but until recently had never actually read a book dedicated to the subject. In reviewing my options, I was told repeatedly that I … Continue reading →

If there’s one thing I like about programming computers, it’s the ability to tell a machine exactly what to do. –insert Skynet reference here– With that said, I wanted to learn some more tips, tricks and techniques to figure out … Continue reading →

  Today when modifying what we call an “order notifier” (essentially observers that are notified when an order is placed), I was having trouble figuring out why my test was failing. The project is written in C# and this test … Continue reading →

Some time ago, I noticed a CruiseControl.Net build report with thousands of unit tests passed, zero failed and a dozen or so skipped, suddenly showing that no tests were run: I immediately thought somebody did something really bad. After some … Continue reading →

Lately I’ve been tracking some of the steps I go through in a given day or week. I was fixing a bug the other day when I decided that I should write down all the mental notes I refer to … Continue reading →

One of the biggest surprises when I started working with WatiN was the omission of a mechanism to check for error conditions. A partial solution using a subclass has been posted before, but it doesn’t quite cover all the bases. … Continue reading →

Michael Feathers posted a thoughtful piece describing the general problems of UI testing tools and the industry in general.  In general, I’d agree here.  Automation tool vendors, as with almost every tool vendor out there, are eager to solve perceived … Continue reading →