Perl Testing: A Developer's Notebook
May 16th, 2010 by CGI & PHP.com
Product Description
Is there any sexier topic in software development than software testing? That is, besides game programming, 3D graphics, audio, high-performance clustering, cool websites, et cetera? Okay, so software testing is low on the list. And that's unfortunate, because good software testing can increase your productivity, improve your designs, raise your quality, ease your maintenance burdens, and help to satisfy your customers, coworkers, and managers. Perl has a strong … More >>
Perl Testing: A Developer's Notebook
Popularity: 31% [?]
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May 16th, 2010 at 8:44 am
I have no idea how this book has received the ratings it has so far. I am a Lead Software Verification Engineer and am a perl programmer (for 10 years now) and found this book a complete waste of time and money. It has zero new ideas. The book tells you how to write standard tests for perl (this could have been accomplished in 2 pages). I love the format of the book. Please look elswhere if you wanna learn about perl or testing or perl testing.
Rating: 1 / 5
May 16th, 2010 at 11:24 am
This is a totally useless book. Few ideas and code scattered all over but not presented in a coherent manner. It teaches about test oriented programming rather than testing of perl code
Rating: 1 / 5
May 16th, 2010 at 1:49 pm
This helped me convince my co-workers to add Unit Testing to our Perl coding too. It has been a lifesaver.
Rating: 5 / 5
May 16th, 2010 at 3:26 pm
This is a great book because it teaches the novice how to do simple tests and shows experienced testers some of the more complicated things you can do with tests. Shortly after reading this book I emarked on packaging up a module, intending to get it onto CPAN. Trying to get a module created and packaged is not terribly hard, but it is difficult knowing where to start. The same is true with writing tests. This book removed that barrier. If writing tests for your software seems like an intimidating prospect, get this book: it will probably tell you what you need to know and will certainly give you an excellent place to start. It may even give guidance with some of the trickier tests you come up with.
Why 4/5 stars? I have found a few bits and pieces of information that would have been useful but the book did not cover (or, more precisely, I do not remember the book covering). Perhaps the most important omission is specification-based testing using LectroTest. It could be that the module came out after the book was published in which case the book gets 4/5 stars for its age. I could be wrong, but I get the impression that Perl testing has grown a lot since 2005, so perhaps they should write a second edition.
I can say this much: If O'Reilly were to put out a second edition of this book, I would buy it.
Rating: 4 / 5
May 16th, 2010 at 4:58 pm
So you want to learn about testing your Perl programs? This book will teach the mechanics of how to use the test frameworks. However it will not teach you a thing about what to test and why. The examples given all test stuff that a child could verify as correct – things so trivial that writing a test for them becomes an exercise in wasting your time. There isn't a bit of sage advice here on where a test is really useful and why, no tips and tricks, no pitfalls or warnings. A glorified manpage.
Rating: 2 / 5