Specification By Example

“The formulation of the problem is often more essential than its solution, which may be merely a matter of mathematical or experimental skill.”

- Albert Einstein

The image on the left is a Dutch proverb, meaning "Setting a good example to follow". It exemplifies the Specification by Example idea.

In short, I managed to follow a one-day course on Specification By Example¹, by InfoSupport² at my place of work (which was convenient) along with a collection of my colleagues.

It seems that in the past there were different terms for the same thing, for example ATDD (Acceptance Test Driven Development) and BTDD (Behaviour Test Driven Development). Martin Fowler shared all these under the heading of Specification by Example.

The main goal here is to create living documentation, documentation that evolves along with the software and is therefore always up to date. It also provides a common domain language that can be used by everyone in the company, be it business analysts, software developers, project managers, stakeholders, product owners, etc.

Once proper examples are created using this domain language, these examples can function as the templates for the creation of tests. At work we use Gherkin and Cucumber⁴ to get these examples written down.

Along with the course I was provided with the book³ on Specification By Example, and I look forward to reading it.

References

[1] Trainingen - Driving Development by Example - InfoSupport

https://training.infosupport.com/trainingen/driving-development-by-example

[2] InfoSupport

http://www.infosupport.com/

[3] Specification by Example - How Successful Teams Deliver the Right Software

Gojko Adzic

[4] Wikipedia - Cucumber (software)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cucumber_(software)

Impact Mapping

https://www.impactmapping.org/

Jeff Patton, Product Manager, Agile, Lean, UX and Product Design Evangelist

http://jpattonassociates.com/

Final project for DEV201x Introduction to TypeScript on edX.org

I have just now completed the course on typescript¹ available at edX².

The good part about the course is that it is a decent introduction into TypeScript, and also provides information on why typescript was invented in the first place. However, that is basically all it is. To become adept at TypeScript, besides knowing TypeScript, it is essential to have a pretty good grasp of JavaScript.

It was a good course, and helped me a lot, but it is a small course indeed.

edX vs. Coursera

This is also the first time that I got to try edX² as I previously only had experience with Coursera³. I don't think it is fair to compare the two, as it very much depends on which course you take. I do think the web interface of edX, in total, could use a little more polishing up, as some of the user interface quirks were hard to understand.

Coursera, I think, is a bit more polished and provides a better experience.

Final Project

The Final Project consisted of a small web application that displays information regarding Painters. I basically did the bare minimum, as I find it hard to find the time to do anything constructive after working hours. (What with life and everything).

What helps is the little IDE provided for free by Microsoft called Visual Studio Code⁴.

The animated gif below shows the user interface of the little web application written in TypeScript⁵.

Click on it for a bigger and better view.

References

1. Microsoft: DEV201x Introduction to TypeScript

https://courses.edx.org/courses/course-v1:Microsoft+DEV201x+1T2016/info

2. edX | Free online courses from the world's best universities

https://courses.edx.org/

3. Coursera : Online Courses From Top Universities

https://www.coursera.org/

4. Microsoft - Visual Studio Code

http://code.visualstudio.com/

5. Typescript Language

http://www.typescriptlang.org/

J-Fall 2016

Registration for J-Fall 2016 has recently been opened.

It will take place on Thursday, November 3th 2016 from 08:00 onwards. Once again it takes place at the CineMec Cinema at 150 Laan der Verenigde Naties, 6716 JE Ede. It is the biggest Java Conference of the Netherlands and is organised by the NLJUG.

I have chosen to follow the following sessions:

• No excuses: switch to Kotlin - Thijs Suijten
• Hands-on Lab: 12 things you can do better with Java8 - Jakub Marchwicki
• How Kids Code and How We Know - Efthimia Aivaloglou
• Hands-on Lab: Adopt-A-JSR: aan de slag met Java 9 (JSR 379) - Maurice de Chateau & Eelco Meuter
• Documentation avoidance for developers - Peter Hilton
• One application to rule them all - Tom Eugelink

Hope to see you there!

References

[1] NLJUG - Nederlandse Java Users Group

http://www.nljug.org

[2] J-Fall 2016

http://www.nljug.org/jfall/2016/

Running java programs on the web

StackOverflow, the website I use frequently when I have questions about the art of Software Design, recently started a new branch called Documentation¹.

It is in Beta at the moment, but it seems already to have some valid content².

Ideone

The Documentation section of StackOverflow seems to make extensive use of Ideone³, which I had never heard of before now.

From their website:

“Ideone is an online compiler and debugging tool which allows you to compile source code and execute it online in more than 60 programming languages.”

Besides the unfortunate large amount of adds surrounding your HelloWorld code, it seems to work pretty well, if you quickly want to try something in the Programming language of Your Choice.

References

1. StackOverflow - Documentation - The Tour

http://stackoverflow.com/tour/documentation

2. StackOverflow - Documentation - Java Language - Arrays

http://stackoverflow.com/documentation/java/99/arrays/404/creating-and-initializing-arrays#t=201609011104443665439

3. ideone.com

https://ideone.com/

I'm Back!

Sorry for the extended time I've been away. Truth is there is neither much to report on, and there's a noticable lack of motivation from my end, besides which I am very busy with other things in my life.

And I was on vacation.

I'm back now, and I hope to add some more articles to this blog in the coming weeks.

Regards, Mr. Bear.