VirtualBox

I have the great pleasure of be able to run Linux at work. Since I’m working with test it is important that all types of operating systems are represented (there’s probably about 1% of our users who actually run Linux but don’t tell anyone!).  However I am forced to do some tasks in Windows so I’ve installed VirtualBox.

At first I wasn’t too impressed. Sure, the installation was smooth but my desk neighbor runs VMware on his Windows machine and it has many more cool features. Copy and paste, drag and drop files, etc. There is a way to make some of that work with VirtualBox as well.

You need to install the Guest Additions. here’s a guide: http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/virtualbox-guest-addons.html

Of course, the next time you start your image, it will be in a 800×600 resolution… don’t panic. Just resizing the window in which your VirtualBox is running and it will change resolution.

Now you can create a shared folder to share files between you machine and your virtual machine without having to email them back and forth.

Edit 2011-08-24: setting up a new vbox on my new job I ran into the windows xp shared folder bug again. It seems impossible to see the shared folders in the network using Windows Explorer. The answer is to click the plus sign next to the network instead of clicking the label. This will make the tree of folders appear. I found the solution here : http://www.giannistsakiris.com/index.php/2007/09/28/virtualbox-access-shared-folders-from-windows-xp-guest-os/

Where does quality come from?

At work I was asked, together with a colleague, to come up with a plan on how to improve/introduce automated testing on our two systems.

It didn’t take us long to identify that integration testing was the way to go. We presented that track. And we were met with questions such as “And how are you going to measure the amount of defects we have?”

Well, would the quality of our systems improve if we measured the amount of defects they had? Would it tell us anything more than the amount of faults they used to have? (Or still have if the mentality is to tolerate and not fix the bugs)

Our plan was completely different.

Quality is something that you build into the system and testing is a tool that can help keep focus on it.

People are fond of TDD because the quality of the code can improve when you use it. It helps you keep track of the intent of your code, make it more structured and hopefully keep the complexity down.

In the same way, by using BDD and integration testing, you can keep track on the goal of the system. What business value does your code add? Who will use it? What is the desired effect?

Even though they are testing techniques, they are also development tools. And an interesting part in introducing quality.