IN DETAIL
Thorough testing is the basis of good software. Whether we use an agile development methodology such as Extreme Programming, or a more traditional approach, we must test our software at the unit level and application level. The tests must run automatically and cover all aspects of the software.
In this book, the authors draw on more than 20 years of experience to show how automated testing can be applied to a real commercial product.
This book will teach you how to automatically test user interfaces (Swing GUIs), the help system, internationalization, log files, spreadsheets, email, and web services, how to perform tests involving multiple JVMs, and a host of other things. These tests are applied at the module level (unit tests) and at the application level (function tests).
The authors have developed the test processes in the broader context of an Extreme Programming (XP) methodology. However, the testing techniques are certainly not specific to XP, and may be applied within any given development methodology.
Approach
This book is a practical guide based on the authors' daily experience developing and maintaining a cutting-edge Artificial Intelligence system. Every chapter comes up with real-life examples and the source code that comes with the book is full of useful (and well-tested) tools. The practical examples make this book suitable learning material for Swing developers.
Lindsay Peters is the Chief Technical Officer for Pacific Knowledge Systems. He an experience of 25 years in software management, formal analysis, algorithm development, software design, and implementation for large commercial and defense systems. Ten years ago, Lindsay and his team were the early adopters of Java, coupled with more rigorous design processes such as Design by Contract. He then helped transition the development team to the Extreme Programming model. Out of this exciting and successful experience grew the "Extreme Testing" approach. In the early 80's, Lindsay managed a software team that was one of the first to incorporate the newly discovered simulated annealing algorithm into a commercial application. This team solved a previously intractable real-world problem, which was the optimum assignment of radio frequencies to collocated mobile radios. Apart from software development and artificial intelligence systems, Lindsay has an interest in mathematical convexity, and has helped to progress the "Happy Ending" problem. He is also involved in politics, and in the last Australian Federal election he stood as the Greens candidate for the seat of Bennelong. Contact Lindsay Peters
Tim Lavers is a Senior Software Engineer at Pacific Knowledge Systems, which produces LabWizard―the gold standard for rules-based knowledge acquisition software. In developing and maintaining LabWizard for almost 10 years, Tim has worked with many Java technologies, including network programming, Swing, reflection, logging, JavaHelp, web services, RMI, WebStart, preferences, internationalization, concurrent programming, XML, and databases. He has worked with tools as well, such as Ant and CruiseControl. His job also includes a healthy mix of user training, technical support, and support to marketing. In his previous job, he wrote servlets and built an image processing library. Along with his professional programming, he writes and maintains the distributed testing tool, GrandTestAuto. He has published a JavaWorld article on RMI as well as a number of mathematical papers. Tim's hobbies include running and playing the piano. Contact Tim Lavers
