Talk - Free Unit Tests In Perl with LectroTest

I gave this talk for the fabulous Pittsburgh Perl Mongers on 2004-09-08. If you're interested, download a copy of my slides from the talk. (They're in PDF format.) Read on for more information on the talk.

The background

Writing unit tests is an effective coding practice that reduces development time while raising our confidence in the software we create. But, if we're brutally honest, the work is often tedious and time consuming, tempting us to skimp on test cases. Is there anything we can do to reduce the pain while keeping the gain?

Yes! With QuickCheck for the Haskell programming language, Koen Claessen and John Hughes demonstrated that not only can your computer run your test cases, but also it can create them for you!

The first time I used QuickCheck for my Haskell programs, I was sold. It caught problems I never would have thought to look for, let alone test for, and it did so elegantly. The only problem? QuickCheck wasn't available to me when coding in Perl.

Last week, I finally got around to doing something about it. The result is LectroTest, a horribly named, automatic, specification-based testing tool for Perl.

The talk

In my talk I'll introduce LectroTest, discuss the problems it solves, and demonstrate how to use it. LectroTest is a work in progress, and so I'll ask for your feedback (bring tomatoes to throw) and solicit your advice for ongoing development. Finally, we'll get jacked up on espresso and race pimped-out camels down Carson Street. (Don't forget your betting money!)

Outline:

• Refreshing introduction
• Unit testing
• Less pain, please
• Using LectroTest
• LectroTesting – Let the machine do the work!
• How does LectroTest work?
• Case study: Email::Address
• End game: ToDos, Q's, feedback
• Bonus stuff