There are two approaches to writing tests and one of them is more conducive to test writing then the other.

The first way is to write your application code first then write the tests to back it up. The first problem with this is a matter of motivation really. After writing all the application code and making it work, I find it very hard to motivate myself to write the little extra bit of tests instead of diving right in to the new feature on the roadmap. Why write the tests after you know it works? Well, again, what if you have to wedge a feature in there or refactor? Then you have to recall all the stuff that you tested by hand while you were building it and then test it again, by hand, or write tests at that point and Murphy’s law says that you will forget at least one critical case the second time around.  That is why the second choice is the better.

The second way to develop with tests is to write the tests for the functionality that you want and then write the code to make the tests pass. This is the Agile approach and, in my opinion, the better. Why? Well, you are writing tests based on requirements. So you will know as soon as your code does what you want. Second, you are writing tests based on what you are encountering while writing the application. This lends itself to more coverage because you will be writing tests for all the little edge cases you will encounter while writing the application. This means that, in the future, when you refactor or go muddling around, you can verify, RIGHT THEN, if you broke anything.

I have heard managers complain about developers spending time on tests and not on features first because users and clients won’t see the tests and time should be spent on user/client features. Well, here is the reality, a little time spent at the beginning of a project writing tests saves a lot of time in the end because you don’t need to spend so much time verifying feature requirements while writing. Plus the QA process is much faster and smoother because you are handing of working code from the beginning. Writing tests at the beginning usually saves me more than 10% time on the same project where I write the application code only with no tests! That is 10% faster to release and ensures better user experience in the long run because I verified that the project is doing what it should and handling errors properly before I even wrote the application!

Today someone mentioned to me that bug or feature was down and I logged in and found that, sure enough, they had updated the rails gem. So I changed my gem requirement in my environment.rb file but my app relies on some 2.2.2 specific stuff so it wouldn’t start. So, I am forced to get the rails-2.2.2 tag from github and put it in vendor/rails to get the site back up again. I am so tired of this. I am done with bluehost and shared hosting. I am going to begin migrating everything to my slicehost slices and call it a day.

Goodbye bluehost, I would love to say it was all great but I can’t…

public void static main(String[] args) {
System.out.println(“Kill me”); }

First, let’s talk about how you get a tinyurl. Tinyurl has a really simple api that you can call that will return a tiny url. It is rediculous how simple it is. You just call this url with a GET: http://tinyurl.comapi-create.php?url=http://example.com

The returned page will be a single line with the tinyurl equivalent. It is that simple. Now on to the rails part.

In your application.rb helper you would add this:

require ‘net/http’
require ‘uri’

def tinyfy(newurl)
   url = URI.parse(‘http://tinyurl.com/’)
   res = Net::HTTP.start(url.host, url.port) {|http|
   http.get(‘/api-create.php?url=’ + newurl)
   }
   if res.body.empty?
      #tinyurl is not responding properly… Return the original url
      return newurl
   else
      return res.body
   end
end

Now if you call the tinyfy method in your app, let’s say in your view, with the url you want to tinyurlify as the parameter the return will be the tinyurl. I take this one step further and have the tinyfy method make the url a link by adding the ‘a’ tags in the method like so:

require ‘net/http’
require ‘uri’

def tinyfy(newurl)
   url = URI.parse(‘http://tinyurl.com/’)
   res = Net::HTTP.start(url.host, url.port) {|http|
   http.get(‘/api-create.php?url=’ + newurl)
   }
   if res.body.empty?
      #tinyurl is not responding properly… Return the original url
      return ‘<a href=’ + newurl + ‘>’ + newurl + ‘</a>’
   else
      return ‘<a href=’ + res.body + ‘>’ + res.body + ‘</a>’
   end
end

That will return a nice linked tinyurl in your view. That is all there is to it.

Hey everyone, there is a new site on the interwebs today! Gripefest.us

GripeFest is an open forum for posting pretty much anything you want and your name is optional! It really is a Gripe Fest. It just launch about an hour ago and it already has a few gripes from the community. Pretty cool considering that it launched with only one gripe to begin with. So, go to http://gripefest.us and bitch about something, its fun

Technorati Tags: Google, Google Maps, Fail

But hey, they got another user out of it!

Justin.tv is a live webcasting website that is totally free! Like YouTube for live footage. It is the most awesome up and coming application out right now. 

You can check me out two ways… First you can click on the “Live Feed” link above or if you want to chat while I am live you can go directly to my live feed on Justin.tv by clicking here.

The past two weeks have been nuts. I had to work last Saturday and it looks like I will be working this Saturday and Sunday! Damnit!

This release cycle is nothing short of a power cycle death march. We had a few weeks to add functionality  and do yet another redesign on some stuff. It was kind of crazy to begin with but hey, add the fact that the production system has been a little spotty and you have a recipe for watching the release deadline fly right by without fail. So there is that right now. I am struggling to not die.

Also this past couple of weeks, I have been working towards getting better with Java. I have been reading up and experimenting in the Java realm. I want to broaden myself from Systems Admin to Software Developer… I got involved in some java projects and Sean and I have been working on a new application called JAmba. Well, mostly Sean right now but I am learning. If you want to know more about JAmba go to www.jambagroup.org (I built the whole site…I am proud damnit). Sean and I are planning on using JAmba for the production site in this next release, provided we can work the bugs out. We hope to release the source code and the package on the JAmba site by next week for anyone to use and play with.

The next update comes from the little bit of personal life I have managed to sneak in to this crazy release cycle. At Karate,  as of Wednesday, I learned all four Kata I need for the test in May.  All I need to do is practice and polish and hopefully by June Lisa and I will be donning some yellow around our waist. Also, last Wednesday we had to do a birthday workout because our sensai turned 61, so we had to do 61 pushups, 61 sit-ups, 61 leglifts, 61 crunches… you get the idea. I am so sore still, though it was fun.