TITLE: XUnit Test Patterns and the Duplex Book
AUTHOR: Eugene Wallingford
DATE: June 22, 2007  4:32 PM
DESC: 
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BODY:
Several folks have already recommended
<A HREF="http://xunitpatterns.com/Gerard%20Meszaros.html">
   Gerard Meszaros</A>'s
new book,
<A HREF="http://xunitpatterns.com/">
   xUnit Test Patterns</A>.
I was fortunate to have a chance to review early drafts of
Gerard's pattern language on the web and then at
<A HREF="http://hillside.net/plop/2004/">
   PLoP 2004</A>,
where Gerard and I were in a writers' workshop together.
By that time I felt I knew a little about writing tests
and using JUnit, but reading Gerard's papers that fall
taught me just how much more there was for me to learn.
I learned a lot that month and can only hope that my
participation in the workshop helped Gerard a small fraction
as much as his book has helped me.  I strongly echo
<A HREF="http://michaelfeathers.typepad.com/michael_feathers_blog/2007/06/xunit_test_patt.html">
   Michael Feathers's recommendation</A>:
"XUnit Patterns is a great all around reference."  (The
same can be said for
<A HREF="http://www.amazon.com/Working-Effectively-Legacy-Robert-Martin/dp/0131177052">
   Michael's book</A>,
though my involvement reviewing early versions of it was
not nearly as deep.)

As I grow older, I have a growing preference for short books.
Maybe I am getting lazy, or maybe I've come to realize that
most of the reasons for which I read don't require 400 or
600 hundred words.  Gerard's book weighs in at a hefty
<EM>883</EM> pages -- what gives?  Well, as Martin Fowler
writes in his post
<A HREF="http://martinfowler.com/bliki/DuplexBook.html">
   Duplex Book</A>,
<EM>XUnit Test Patterns</EM> is really more than one book.
Martin says two, but I think of it as really three:
<UL>
<LI> a 181-page <STRONG>narrative</STRONG> that teaches us
     about automated tests, how to write them, and how to
     refactor them, </LI>

<LI> a 91-page <STRONG>catalog</STRONG> of smells you will
     find in test code, and </LI>

<LI> an approximately 500-page <STRONG>catalog</STRONG> of
     the patterns of test automation.  These patterns
     reference one another in a tight network, and so might
     be considered a pattern language.  </LI>
</UL>

So in a book like this, I have the best of two worlds: a
relatively short, concise, well-written story that shows me
the landscape of automated unit testing and gets me started
writing tests, plus a complete reference book to which I can
turn as I need to learn a particular technique in greater
detail.  I can read the story straight through and then jump
into and out of the catalogs as needed.  The only downside
is the actual weight of the book...  It's no pocket reference!
But that's a price I am happy to pay.

One of my longstanding goals has been to write an introductory
programming textbook, say for CS1, in the duplex style.  I'm
thinking something like the dual <EM>The Timeless Way of
Building</EM>/<EM>A Pattern Language</EM>, only shorter and
less mystical.  I had always hoped to be the first to do this,
to demonstrate what I think is a better future for instructional
books.  But at this increasingly late date, I'd be happy if
anyone could succeed with the idea.
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