Continuous Testing: with Ruby, Rails, and JavaScript

We all know feedback is good. Why not get it instantly? Continuous Testing with Ruby shows you how to use a combination of tests, tools, and techniques to immediately detect problems in code. This book will help you create a personalized development environment that instantly validates your decisions as you make changes to your code. This rapid feedback allows you to focus on the problem at hand, rather than constantly re-checking prior work. If you want to spend more of your time writing valuable software, and less time slogging through code line-by-line in a debugger, Continuous Testing with Ruby can help you!

Continuous Testing (CT) is a developer practice that shortens the feedback loops established by test-driven development and continuous integration. Building on techniques used by Agile software development practitioners, Continuous Testing with Ruby shows you how to get instant feedback about both the quality of your code, and the quality of your tests.

We show how you can create a customized continuous testing environment, specifically suited to the projects you're working on. You'll see working examples for languages such as Ruby and JavaScript, but the techniques described in this book can easily be applied no matter what technology you happen to be working with. We also cover how to extend this environment when working with frameworks such as Ruby on Rails, and discuss how creating rapid feedback loops can dramatically increase the rate at which you can deliver working, valuable software.

Automated testing is an increasingly common practice in the software development industry. However, many companies struggle to gain all the benefits of automated testing, due to poorly written or incomplete tests. Continuous Testing with Ruby shows how these companies can get the most value out of their existing tests. It also helps you improve the quality of the new tests you write, by giving you instant feedback about problem areas, and creating a visceral feedback loop for test quality that you can actually feel as you work.

Just as continuous integration and test-driven development have changed the definition of software development in the last ten years, Continuous Testing is poised to become a standard practice for development teams in the next decade.

Ben Rady is a passionate and pragmatic software developer. He is the creator of Infinitest, a continuous test runner for Java, and contributes to a number of other projects that benefit the open source community. Presently employed as a Software Engineer at DRW Trading, Ben is focused on development practices that support rapid and regular delivery of well crafted software. You can follow Ben on Twitter at twitter.com/benrady, or at his blog at benrady.com.

Rod Coffin is a Principal Consultant at Improving Enterprises, which provides training, consulting, and outsourcing services. He has coached and mentored several teams on agile software development and is equally passionate about the organizational and technical sides of effective software development. He is a frequent speaker at software conferences and has written many articles on a range of software development topics including agility, enterprise software development, and semantics.