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Test Connection

Its in the Way that You Use Itby Michael Bolton

People sometimes ask me what my fa-vorite test tool is, and my answer often

confuses them. They seem to expect me

to name a program that automates the

operation of an application, makes some

process more repeatable, or allows a

machine to drive as quickly as possible

through an application. But if you think

driving is merely about getting from

one point to another, ask a New York

cabbie.

Rapid testers dont think of test auto-

mation merely as something that controlsa program and checks for some expected

result. Instead, we think of test automa-

tion as any useof tools to support testing.

So my favorite test tool changes from

moment to moment, but its often (drum

roll) my text editor. For years, Ive used

an editor called TextPad (see the Sticky

Notes for a link). Im not claiming that

its the best editor available, but its my

favorite. There are plenty of other text

editors, and whichever one you use, if

youre happy with it, I am, too. So whatdo I use a text editor for?

Writing. A lot of my work as a tester

involves creating and editing texttaking

notes, editing text, creating Fitnesse ta-

bles, building Web pages, or writing ar-

ticles like this one. With my text editor,

I can do these things efficiently without

extra overhead like the tables, format-

ting and layout tools, styles, and thesau-

ruses in sophisticated word processors.

These extra features sometimes distract

me or entice me to use them needlessly.As Marshall McLuhan said, We shape

our tools, and thereafter our tools shape

us [1]. I sometimes use a text editor to

emphasize to myself that Im working

on something temporary or preliminary.

Thats not to say that a text file is never

important; a commercial software com-

pany that I worked for used to track

bugs and feature suggestions by using a

plain old ASCII text document. For us,

the cost and overhead of an elaborate

test management tool wasnt worth it

when ideas could be captured concisely,

compactly, and sufficiently in text.

Programming. Good text editors sup-

port programming by providing syntax

highlighting, which recognizes the pro-

gramming language that Im using and

changes the color or font of keywords,

symbols, and variables to make them

more distinguishable. This improvesreadability and provides some cognitive

hints to alert me when Im making a mis-

take. More sophisticated programming

environments automatically add closing

parentheses, braces, or brackets when I

type the opening symbol; provide con-

text-sensitive help for the languages and

libraries that Im using; and offer very

sophisticated ways to map and model

larger programs. When Im working on

a large project, I find these features es-

sential, but for a quick-and-dirty throw-away script, a good text editor is just

fine.

Cutting and pasting. Unlike Notepad,

TextPad can mark blocks of text in col-

umns, which allows me to open a file

thats organized as a table, grab specific

blocks in columns, and manipulate them

or copy them to another program. This

is often handy in combination with com-

mand line redirection to supply input

from a file or output from a program to

a text file. In Windows, its also possibleto extend the virtual size of the com-

mand window, copy output from pro-

grams, and paste it into a text editor for

processing.

Data generation. I often use a testing

technique called an input constraint at-

tackhurling huge amounts of text at

an input field to see whether the program

protects itself from buffer overflows that

could compromise security or stability.To generate data quickly, I type ten char-

acters and then hit Ctrl-A (select all),

Ctrl-C (copy to the clipboard), and then

Ctrl-V ten times (paste ten copies). Now

I have a file of one hundred characters.

Then I hit Ctrl-A, Ctrl-C, and Ctrl V ten

times again; now I have a thousand char-

acters. Repeat that cycle a few times with

a final Ctrl-A, Ctrl-C, and Ctrl-V, and I

have a million or ten million characters

on the clipboard, suitable for pasting

into an input field, an application, or aWeb page. Try it! The results are often

fascinatingdata corruption, strange

behavior, or a crash. Danny Faught and

James Bachs PerlClip tool [2] has more

features for this task, but a text editor

will do many useful things in a pinch.

Searching and replacing. Sometimes

Im looking for words, strings of words,

or patterns of characters inside log

files, Web pages, XML pages, comma-

delimited files, or binary files. Some-

times I want to replace strings of textwith something else, or delete markup

ISTOCKPHOTO

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so t at I can ocus on t e text. To assist

wit t ese tas s, etter text e itors in-

c u e support or regu ar expressions

power u orms o notation or see ing,

matc ing, extracting, or rep acing pat-

terns in text. See Je Frie s aster ng

egu ar xpress ons .

Learning. T e Per , Pyt on, an Ru y

scripting anguages provi e power u

support or regu ar expressions, ut it

can e ar to appreciate t eir va ue

unti youve earne to use t em we

enoug to per orm your rst mirac e.

More comp ex regu ar expressions can

e ar to earn w t out v sua ee

ac an recovera ty. s ng t e text

e itor to step t roug pattern matc ing

an su stitution, seeing c anges in t e

text in rea time, an eing a e to press

t e Un o ey e pe to acce erate my

earning.

Data inspection. W en I nee to earn

somet ing a out a eits content or

ormat o ten start nvest gat ng y

open ng t n a text e tor. m g t see a

ea er t at gives me c ues, ata in c ear

text, or repeate patterns o strings or

an s. I o ten scro t roug a og e

very quic y, using a e ocuse per-

spective to i enti y patterns o output

or ramatic i erences rom t e norm.

(We ca t is in testing or using a

n orac e. ee t e t c y otes or

more in ormation.) I can a so use t e

e itor to e ete or c ange c aracters as

a quic way to mo i y a c ean ata e

to see ow a program an es e cor-

rupt on.

My co eagues an I sometimes use

our e itors or t ings t at t eir pu -

is ers mig t not ave expecte . W en I

try to pour a ot o ata nto an nput

e , an t e input e truncates t e

excess, I copy t e e an paste it intot e e itor to get a wor or c aracter

count rig t away. I o ten use text es as

a ac up mec anism w en Im entering

text into a We page. Jon Bac says t at

e uses text es as onger-term, sa er

storage or t e c p oar . e ot use

text e tors to pee t e ormatt ng o

ric text w en were pasting arge vo -

umes o text to isjointe ce s in an

Exce e. James Bac once programme

is text e itor to remin im to ta e

testing notes every ew minutes. W en Iorget t e syntax or a tag or a specia

c aracter in HTML, or t e c aracter as-

sociate wit a particu ar ASCII co e,

my text e itor is t e an iest an astest

re erence.

ere are severa po nts to a t s.

First, t e simp er t e too , t e more ex-

i e, a apta e, an use u it mig t e.

T in o t e i erence etween a 50

Swiss Army ni e an a 15,000 com-

puter-contro e ta e saw. Secon , i e

qua ity, purpose is not somet ing

in erent in a pro uct. Purpose is a re-

ations ip [4] etween t e pro uct an

t e person w o s putt ng t to some use.

T ir , some o t ose purposes are in-

ten e y t e esigners an a opte y

t e users, ut nove an surprising pur-

poses may emerge as we use a pro uct

or as we test t.

As testers, were usua y as e to e-

en t e va ue o a pro uct y n ing

mportant pro ems w t respect to

ts nten e purpose. owever, we

t in o our pro ucts as too s t at i -

erent peop e wi use in i erent ways,

a va ue y iscovering pur-

poses t at avent yet een recognize .

For examp e, i we t in o a test too

as any too t at supports testing, even

t e um e text e itor mig t ecome a

power u test too .{end}

REFERENCES:1] McLuhan, Marshall. Understanding Media.

The MIT Press,1994.

2] www.satisfice.com/tools/perlclip.zip

3] Friedl, Jeffrey. Mastering Regular Expres-

sions. OReilly Media, Inc., 2006.

4] Weinberg, Gerald M. ntroduction to General

Systems Thinking. Dorset House Publishing

Company, Inc., 2001.

Test Connection

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