Pre-conj Prep: Ashton Kemerling

September 26, 2014

Talk: Generative Integration Tests

Background

Ashton Kemerling's talk at the conj is about Generative Testing (also known as Property-based Testing) as applied to integration tests. Generative Testing is a methodology for generating many tests randomly to find failing cases (as opposed to writing each test by hand). It often finds difficult bugs and can present a very small, reproducible failing case.

The best talk I have seen about Generative Testing is John Hughes' talk at Clojure/West. John Hughes wrote Quickcheck for Haskell and Erlang. Reid Draper has recently ported it to Clojure in the form of test.check. He also gave a talk at Clojure/West about test.check.

Why it matters

Generative testing is great for unit testing. It has already found bugs in Clojure itself. What's not obvious is how to apply the technique to integration tests to test the interaction of different systems. This talk appears to be an experience report from a company that has actually used Generative Integration Tests.

About Ashton Kemerling

Twitter - Github - Blog

This post is one of a series called Pre-conj Prep, which originally was published by email. It's all about getting ready for the upcoming Clojure/conj, organized by Cognitect. Conferences are ongoing conversations and explorations. Speakers discuss trends, best practices, and the future by drawing on the rich context built up in past conferences and other media.

That rich context is what Pre-conj Prep is about. I want to enhance everyone's experience at the conj by surfacing that context. With just a little homework, we can be better prepared to understand and enjoy the talks and the hallway conversations, as well as the beautiful venue and city of Washington, DC.

Clojure/conj is a conference organized and hosted by Cognitect. This information is in no way official. It is not sponsored by nor affiliated with Clojure/conj or Cognitect. It is simply me curating and organizing public information about the conference.