Recommended Blogs

A short list of blogs that I read regularly, and highly recommend: Robert Martin’s Clean Coder Blog.  ‘Uncle Bob’, as he is known, has been a wonderfully curmudgeonly source of inspiration for the importance of writing clean code, and writing tests.  If Robert A. Heinlein were to be re-incarnated as a software developer, he would … Continue reading “Recommended Blogs”

William Charles Roth (Sr.) — Obituary

“Bill” to friends, “Poppie Bill” to his granddaughters, and “Dirty Bill” to tennis opponents, left us after 89 years, on December 11, 2013, at St. Joseph Mercy Hospital in Ypsilanti. Impatient to the end, his last words included “Hurry up. Hurry up.” Bill is remembered by his wife of 59 years, Peggy Ellen Roth; son … Continue reading “William Charles Roth (Sr.) — Obituary”

William Charles Roth (Sr.) — In Memoriam

In Memoriam: 10/25/1924 – 12/11/2013 Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings; Sunward I’ve climbed and joined the tumbling mirth of sun-split clouds, – and done a hundred things After 89 years on this earth, on Wednesday night, December 11 2013, my Dad, William Charles Roth … Continue reading “William Charles Roth (Sr.) — In Memoriam”

Unit-Testing Tutorial 03: Dummies and Mocks

I. Introduction  —  What’s a dummy?  What’s a Mock? When we write a unit-test for a method, we’re primarily interested in that method.  Ideally, we’re not testing other objects or methods used by that method. (Apply a liberal helping of common sense, however.  If method X uses methods Y and Z in the same class, … Continue reading “Unit-Testing Tutorial 03: Dummies and Mocks”

Unit-Testing Tutorial 02: “Test Driven Development”

I. Introduction “Test Driven Development” (TDD) is a discipline for writing code by writing the unit-tests first.  More precisely, it is a cycle of: Write a (failing!) test Write just enough code to pass the test. Refactor the code to keep it clean (but still passing) where, at each iteration, you build up the “production” … Continue reading “Unit-Testing Tutorial 02: “Test Driven Development””

Unit-Testing Tutorial 01: Introduction

I. Introduction and Purpose This series of blog posts is an adaptation of a set of classes on unit-testing that I teach at ProQuest (a leading academic and corporate search engine for ‘paywalled’ articles and data).  ProQuest has been kind enough to allow me to publish this series for anyone to read and learn from. This … Continue reading “Unit-Testing Tutorial 01: Introduction”

The JUnit Green Lantern Oath

In brightest day, in blackest night No failing tests shall escape my sight! Let those who sloppy code would write Beware my power — JUnit’s green light! OK, it’s kitsch.  Tacky.  Geeky.  Even (shudder) cute.  But it also has a point.  Bear with me.  (I’m assuming you’re a software developer, and already familiar with unit-testing, … Continue reading “The JUnit Green Lantern Oath”