Posted on

Test Driven Development : A party drug

My good friend Scott recently got into Test Driven Development, essentially pointing out that the crossover to understanding why TDD was important basically sat between the fact that TDD was essentially misnamed. If you took out the references to Testing, which is generally seen as a dull chore to many new and experienced coders, then you are left with a development process which is much more interactive than producing UML diagrams and can tell other developers a lot more about your design (and hopefully less open to interpretation.)

The process of writing tests before you develop in TDD is to explain the behaviour of a class rather than actually testing it. He pointed me to some links that explained the very position and how some are considering the name Behaviour Driven Development in place of TDD and frameworks to help interface with such a thing.

So thanks to Scott, here are some great links about TDD where you can hopefully understand the why’s behind it.

Jean-Paul Boodhoo – Behaviour Driven Development
James Kovacs’ Weblog – A Tale of Two Epiphanies: TDD and Mocking
NSpec Homepage
And a great site that talks about testing of all sorts on all different platforms – testdriven.com

Oh, and if you are wondering the crazed title of this blog came from… Once I’d been preaching TDD to Scott for the past few weeks and he finally got the exact why when he actually did it and what benefits you experience from it, I likened the experience to a drug user explaining to a non-drug user why they perceive rave music to be the most enthralling thing they’ve ever experienced, the non-user will never get it till they’ve tried it.

Posted on

Bushido and Muse

http://www.bushidomusic.com
You must buy Mercina
You must buy Mercina
You must buy Mercina
You must buy Mercina

Bushido’s Mercina is easily one of the best EP’s I’ve heard since Cog’s Just Visiting and the Full Scale arrows series. I don’t think its fair to attempt to explain Bushido’s sound, but if you are in the scene then you will love them. I saw them with Sleight of Hand at the Green Room last month and they kicked arse. Dinic is one of Melbourne’s hidden drumming talents.

From little Melbourne band now, to a different scale, MUSE have been around a while. My friend Steph tells me they are touring at the same time Tool is and recommended me the album before last as the one to get into.

Indeed, Stolkholm Syndrome, Sing for Absolution, Time is Running out are some of my favourite tracks on their breaktrhough CD absolution. They have recently released a new CD which changes direction a little, but still with roots in bands like Radiohead but varying everywhere with bits sounding like Queens of the Stone Age, Mars Volta and even Coldplay here and there.

Posted on

Java Online Training and Tutorials

http://java.sun.com/developer/onlineTraining/index.html

The following appears to be a more mature version of the Java tutorial and makes reference to tutorials outside of the basic Java Tutorial. (ie JavaBeans 101)

Posted on

Tangent the arc of Negativity

http://www.courseilt.com/preview/1560523069.pv.pdf#search=%22managing%20negative%20people%22

I found two useful links that talk about dealing with negative people.

The first is 3 brief points that really make you think about letting go and getting out of the idiots ball court (regaining perspective and focus). Even though its focused in a customer service platform, the tips are so simple and useful that they could be applied anywhere. 3 Powerful Secrets For Dealing With Negative People by Peter Murphy

The second is a book. I read the intro and could relate already. It started off with a few surveys that I quickly skipped but appeared very useful…. hey and its a freebie.