I’ve looked at SGS, and think this is pretty good stuff (although I am a bit sceptical as into which direction this will head economically - once enough prestigious projects have picked this up, will the license fees be prohibitive?).
One question, though: Have you guys thought about unit tests? Is there support for them designed into the architecture? As far as I can see right now, it will be quite difficult to implement unit tests, won’t it?
Not if I have anything to say about iot. The primary goal here is not to make the WOWs easier to build, though obviously wed like a peice of that business, but to vastly expand the business by making a space where many more companeis can economically compete on more niche products.
Thats integral to the analysis that launched this at Sun.
Unit tests for what? Server app code? I always build my unit tests as individual test harnesses for functional modules soIm not sure I see the issue, but if you could describe what you rhinka unit testing framework for something liek this shoudl look like we could talk about doing something for it 8)
Sorry for the late response - I was on a business trip the last week. Anyway, what I meant where unit tests for server/client interaction. For example, if I implement a user interaction that should initiate some server-side state change, it would be nice to have a unit test for that. The test would simulate (invoke the relevant method) the user interaction, and would test that the server state changes accordingly.
I know this is very demanding. It could also be that I simply lack the necessary experience for developing unit tests in client/server architectures. Therefore, if you have a better idea on how to unit test, I wouldn’t mind hearing it.
What do you mean by ‘test harnesses for funtional modules’? I can easily conceive tests for specific functions of the server or client, but what would be the truly critical part of a MOG would be the client/server interoperation, and I thought that it would be helpful (if not essential) to be able to test that automatically.
Im not sure what it woudl look liek either. yet.
Im in the process of teachign myself rails. It claims to have a built in unit test harness. Myabe that will spark some ideas…
mockobjects?
Describe in more detail?
You mean objects that simulate the server on the client side and vice versa? Could work, although this would be very brittle even for minor changes in the way the server and client communicate.
Frankly, for me there is a vast discrepancy between the XP claim that unit tests can and should be written for everything, and the architectural problems of testing distributed applications. And at this time, I am not sure whether this is my lack of experience, or a more general problem.