Refactoring for Testable C++ at OOPSLA

I will be co-presenting a workshop on Refactoring Legacy C++ Code to Testable C++ with Joshua Kerievsky at OOPSLA 2008. If you deal with C++ code and want to make it testable, this tutorial is for you.

This tutorial for intermediate-level C++ programmers is based on my own pragmatic experience working with legacy C++, as well as the experience of other Industrial Logic coaches. It is part lecture with slides and video, and part practice on C++ code that we provide.

I gave this workshop with Gil Broza at the Agile 2008 conference, and the class members really appreciated digging into the labs -- to the point that many of them choose to work on the code and tests in one of the labs instead of taking a break.

If you are working with hard-to-test legacy C++ code, and want to get it under test so you can safely refactor it, this tutorial will present several hard-to-test examples of C++ code and show how it can be refactored into testable code. The legacy code problems that may experience have several possible refactorings to get them under test, and we will cover the pros and cons of the most common refactorings and problems.

Looking at Good Object Oriented Design

Looking at good Object Oriented design is like watching an effective manager (or CEO) who knows how to delegate the proper responsibilities to his or her team(s).

jBehave's Golden Rules

I like these "Golden Rules" for contributers to jBehave:

Here are some rules that we follow when developing JBehave:

• Example Driven: Only create code to solve a realistic (and preferably real) problem.
• Behaviour Driven: Only create classes once you can describe and automate examples of their behaviour.
• No Misbehaving: Automated examples must work before being checked into the repository, and existing tests must not be broken.

They have a new release, by the way. With "plain text" scenarios. Check it out.