Unit Testing News: NUnit and VS2005, TestDriven.NET v2.0 Beta

Jamie Cansdale is continuing his work on version 2.0 of the must-have TestDriven.NET Visual Studio add-in.  Jamie mentions that TestDriven.NET 2.0 beta is available via (the now Microsoft-owned) FolderShare.  Here's Jamie's list of v2.0 improvements:

• Built and tested using the RTM bits of .NET 2.0 and Visual Studio 2005
• Support for Visual Studio 2005 Team System unit testing and debugging
• Support for Visual Studio 2005 Express Editions
• Compatible with 64bit versions of Windows
• Backward compatible with Visual Studio .NET 2002/2003
• Shiny new extensibility model

In NUnit news, Charlie Poole points out that next iteration release (2.2.3) is now available, with some interesting improvements.  Highlights from the release notes:

• NUnit can now be installed and run under .NET 2.0 and used in conjunction with VS2005. A problem that prevented installation when .NET 2.0 Beta 2 was the only installed framework has been corrected. NUnit 2.2.3 installation requires one of the following .NET framework versions to be present: 2.0.50727, 2.0.50215, 2.0.40607, 1.1.4322 or 1.0.3705.
  
• A number of new Assert Methods have been added:
  • Assert.IsNaN(double) - Tests whether it's argument is NaN.
  • Assert.IsEmpty(string) - Tests that it's argument is the empty string.
  • Assert.IsNotEmpty(string) -Tests that it's argument is not the empty string.
  • Assert.IsEmpty(ICollection) - Tests that an array, list or collection is empty.
  • Assert.IsNotEmpty(ICollection) - Tests that an array, list or collection is not empty.
  • Assert.IsInstanceOf(Type,object) - Tests that an object is an instance of the supplied Type.
  • Assert.IsNotInstanceOf(Type,object) - Tests that an object is an not instance of the supplied Type.
  • Assert.IsAssignableFrom(Type,object) - Tests that an object may be assigned to an object of the supplied Type.
  • Assert.IsNotAssignableFrom(Type,object) - Tests that an object may not be assigned to an object of the supplied Type.
  • Assert.Contains(object,IList) - Tests whether an object is in a list or array.
    
• The StringAssert class has been moved from the extensions assembly into nunit.framework. It supports the following methods:
  • StringAssert.Contains(string,string) - Tests whether a string contains an expected string.
  • StringAssert.StartsWith(string,string) - Tests whether a string begins with an expected string.
  • StringAssert.EndsWith(string,string) - Tests whether a string ends with an expected string.
  • StringAssert.AreEqualIgnoringCase(string,string) - Compares two strings for equality without regard to case and gives an error message showing the actual strings, without case adjustment.

And finally, if you happen to read this within the next few hours, Noah Coad posts about the next Team System Chat (for the Developer and Tester Editions) today (11/16) at 1:00 PM EST.

-Chris

Have You Been Converted? NUnit to Team System Tool Available

James Newkirk has posted notice that an early build of his tool to convert your NUnit-based unit tests to Team System unit tests is now available on GotDotNet.  (Note that this is currently only for C#, but that will change.)

I had the chance to speak with him at TechEd about the challenges involved and the technology he used to write the tool - interesting stuff!  He is planning to release the source code, so I'm looking forward to seeing more of the implementation.

It's also good to see that he used the Guidance Automation Toolkit (GAT), another interesting product from the Pattterns & Practices team, to plug in to Visual Studio 2005.

-Chris

Tools for your Inner Artist

I really have no talent for the visual arts, but some of the tools now available allow me to pretend that I do.  Give them a try...

ArtRage (which I discovered through Tim Weaver) is simply amazing.  It simulates painting on canvas with a variety of methods (e.g. paint, crayon, pencil, etc.)  I've been using it with a normal mouse, but if you have a tablet, you must try this.

CBN Selector is an easy-to-use image colorizer.  The intended use is modifying a picture of a house or room to see how it would look with alternate colors.  You define custom areas (e.g. garage door, window trim, carpet, curtains), then apply a new colors as you wish - the texture of the original is maintained.  They have a great library of tutorials as well.  Try this before you buy your next can of paint!

Paint.NET has just been updated to v2.0 (by way of Jason Barile.)  A great Framework-based application supporting some fairly impressive (at least to a codemonger like myself) capabilities.

I've blogged about this before, but if you're interested in creating videos from your pictures, you should take a look at Microsoft's free Photo Story 3.  You can create a decent video in just a few minutes (or, spend as much time as you'd like tweaking every little detail.)

All of these tools are freely obtainable.

Now, get out there and create!

-Chris