Talk Details:

Speaker #1: Jim Keenan
Title: Component-Focused Testing: The Case of the Parrot Build Tools
Duration: 40 minutes

Description:

Installation of an open-source software package such as Perl or a CPAN module generally follows a 4-step process: configure, build, test, install. Although 'make test' is usually thought of as the place where all the testing happens, the successful completion of each of the other stages implicitly constitutes the passing of a functional test. But does there exist a place for a type of test which is not included in the 'test' target but instead is run either before the 'configure' stage or between the 'configure' and 'build' stages?

In this talk, Jim argues that there is a role for such tests and he describes how he has implemented a number of test suites, run post-configure but pre-build, for those of Parrot's build tools written in Perl 5. Such tests encourage provide more rapid feedback on the results of refactoring than 'make test' can. Indeed, they encourage Phalanx-style refactoring which makes the build tools more maintainable over the long run.

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Speaker #2: Henry Baragar
Title: Test Driven Design: Or How I Learned to Love the KISS Principle

Duration: 40 minutes

Description:

Test Driven Development is a practice that can be used to improve software quality by writing tests before writing code. Applied properly, this practice can be extended to the design activities as well as code construction. In other words, it is practical to organically grow an application from an acorn to a mighty oak without doing any up front design work.

To demonstrate Test Driven Design, Henry will walk through the evolution of a real world example. He will discuss the techniques, examine some interesting and unexpected observations, and present statistics from personal use. Finally, the example will be developed using Jifty so that you may gain some exposure and insight into this interesting and cutting edge application framework.

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Note:

The elevators in the building are "locked down" after 5:30pm to people without building access cards. Leading up to the meeting someone will come down to the main floor lobby every few minutes to ferry people upstairs.

After 19:00, you can reach the access-card-carrying guy via a cell phone number that we'll leave with security in the front lobby. The room and floor numbers will be left with security too.

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