TestDriven.NET by Jamie Cansdale

Your Place in the Cosmos

To claim your place in the LinkCosmos, all you need do it submit this simple form. All I'm asking is for permission to link to you (as per the privacy policy).  I'm surprised how few of the people who left URLs in the original survey have opted-in.

Maybe I could bribe you to opt-in with this green bar.  ;o)

TestDriven.NET Link Cosmos

If you filled in the TestDriven.NET survey in the last couple of days, you will have seen a 'Show' option on the 'Weblog/Home Page' question. If you selected 'Show', then your link may appear on the TestDriven.NET website. Today I'm opening a new section on the site called the "LinkCosmos". For the moment, this is where user links will appear.

The LinkCosmos is a fun way to track how word-of-mouth about TestDriven.NET is spreading. Users who have opted-in to be shown will appear as nodes on a graph, with links to who referred them and who they refer. If you're using the Adobe SVG plug-in for IE, these nodes will be hyperlinked to the users page. If you're not using the SVG plug-in, you can preview the graph as a static PNG image.

When the survey was first designed, there was no 'Show' option and the privacy policy explicitly stated that no personal information would be disclosed to any third party without your consent. Because of this, you and the people you referred will have to opt-in to appear on the graph. Opting-in is simply a case of visiting the 'Cosmos' page and selecting 'Show'.

Links only appear in the cosmos when special referrer URLs are used. As I mentioned yesterday, less than 0.1% of .NET developers are using TestDriven.NET. There is plenty of scope for expansion in the cosmos. You can be part of the red-shift by sending referrer URLs to your friends, colleagues and internal mailing lists. ;o)

LinkCosmos

PS. The code to draw these graphs is packaged with TestDriven.NET in the MbUnit directory. Once again I am indebted to Peli and his excellent QuickGraph library.

TestDriven.NET Launch Report

Two weeks after the launch of TestDriven.NET 1.0, I'm still feeling quite giddy from the all positive feedback. I knew there were a few enthusiastic users out there, but I was quite taken aback by the response.  Thank you everyone for your support!  If it carries on like this I'm confident we will get integrated unit testing out to the masses. There is still a loooong way before every mort, elvis and einstein has heard of TestDriven.NET. Erring on the optimistic side, 0.1% of .NET developers have tried using the add-in. I like to think a few more than that could benefit from using it.

When I introduced the link builder, I mentioned that anyone who uses the special referrer URLs will be able to track the number of people they have referred. On Monday I will be announcing something that I hope you will enjoy! In the meantime, feel free to use the all new link builder. In particular, please send a link to any of your non-blogger friends, colleagues or mailing lists. It is easy to forget that the blogosphere is tiny compared to the .NET community at large. You will see this in a very visual way on Monday. Hold tight. ;o)

BTW, I have just noticed the editor used by .Text has a spell check option (see the ABC icon). This is quite a revaluation (sic) for a dyslexic like me!

SpaceShipOne

TestDriven.NET 1.0 - The Acid Test

As you may have already noticed, TestDriven.NET 1.0 has finally been released!  In the stress and excitement of getting a golden build together, I didn't get a chance to blog about it myself before lighting the blue touch paper!  For what feels like months I've been working nights trying to ensure that TestDriven.NET works with all versions of Visual Studio .NET, for all languages, on all platforms, for all user types using any of the major unit testing frameworks. The compatibility matrix is daunting and there are a lot of dark and scary corners!  This couldn't possibly have happened without countless debugging sessions over email and Messenger with many individuals.  I would also like to thank people for their patience with the beta and RC version timeouts.  This kept the pressure on for new releases and gave new versions of the installer an important workout.  This has now been disabled and I'm not sure I will ever use timeouts again!

When you go to download V1.0 you will notice a few things.  Firstly a proper website!  The site design and graphics were done by Andrew Forkes and Anne Carter (graphist). I'm absolutely thrilled by how it has turned out - I hope you like it as well.  I'm also asking people to register and fill in a survey about what .NET and TDD related technologies they're using.  This will give me invaluable information about where to focus future development efforts.  I mentioned the formidable compatibility matrix - this isn't helped by (for example) not having the faintest idea how many people are still using Visual Studio .NET 2002.  With the survey data I will be able to make informed decisions about what to support.  There are also a few questions that will be interesting to blog about later (eg what testing related tools people are using).  I hope you don't mind filling it in; if you do, at least answer the last question honestly.  ;o)

Enjoy!

Jamie Cansdale
Mutant Design Ltd.