Comments for Life's but a walking shadow... http://tkg.menteith.com ...a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. Thu, 28 Aug 2008 10:59:44 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.2 Comment on Why use more that XSLT for testing XSLT? by tkg http://tkg.menteith.com/2008/06/09/why-use-more-that-xslt-for-testing-xslt/#comment-3646 tkg Mon, 09 Jun 2008 15:18:20 +0000 http://tkg.menteith.com/2008/06/09/why-use-more-that-xslt-for-testing-xslt/#comment-3646 <p>Jeni,</p> <p>Thanks for the hint about parameters. You can do that with Juxy and with UTF-X (http://utf-x.sourceforge.net/). Juxy also lets you set global variables (I think at least one of the XSLT frameworks does too). It's not covered in the XMLUnit documentation, but inasmuch as XMLUnit just runs a JAXP transformation (and presumably does something similar for C#), setting parameters should be possible with XMLUnit, too.</p> <p>I think we all have dreams of making the hub format for testing XSLT (for a very small value of "all"). I have a XML format for Juxy tests that I've considered could be usefully transformed into tests for other frameworks.</p> <p>I guess any framework that can run a stylesheet multiple times and recover from terminating stylesheets would do the job. One issue for an XProc pipeline would be how to generate reports such that you can see the results for tests that terminated alongside results for tests that didn't.</p> <p>The Behavior-Driven-Development stuff that I've seen talks in the same breath about using mock objects when testing. XSLT isn't exactly object oriented, and stylesheets seldom make any pretense of presenting an API, so in addition to being generally interested in seeing XSpec when it's done, I'd be interested in seeing what it would say about testing XSLT.</p> Jeni,

Thanks for the hint about parameters. You can do that with Juxy and with UTF-X (http://utf-x.sourceforge.net/). Juxy also lets you set global variables (I think at least one of the XSLT frameworks does too). It’s not covered in the XMLUnit documentation, but inasmuch as XMLUnit just runs a JAXP transformation (and presumably does something similar for C#), setting parameters should be possible with XMLUnit, too.

I think we all have dreams of making the hub format for testing XSLT (for a very small value of “all”). I have a XML format for Juxy tests that I’ve considered could be usefully transformed into tests for other frameworks.

I guess any framework that can run a stylesheet multiple times and recover from terminating stylesheets would do the job. One issue for an XProc pipeline would be how to generate reports such that you can see the results for tests that terminated alongside results for tests that didn’t.

The Behavior-Driven-Development stuff that I’ve seen talks in the same breath about using mock objects when testing. XSLT isn’t exactly object oriented, and stylesheets seldom make any pretense of presenting an API, so in addition to being generally interested in seeing XSpec when it’s done, I’d be interested in seeing what it would say about testing XSLT.

]]> Comment on Why use more that XSLT for testing XSLT? by Jeni Tennison http://tkg.menteith.com/2008/06/09/why-use-more-that-xslt-for-testing-xslt/#comment-3645 Jeni Tennison Mon, 09 Jun 2008 13:43:32 +0000 http://tkg.menteith.com/2008/06/09/why-use-more-that-xslt-for-testing-xslt/#comment-3645 Tony, Another good reason for going outside an XSLT-based framework is to test how stylesheet parameters should change the output. I have a dream of having an platform-neutral XSLT test document format which could be implemented in any language. One method would be a transformation into an XProc pipeline, which you then run. XProc has the advantage of being able to set parameters, catch errors (messages), and passes on multiple result documents as one of the outputs of the XSLT step. I have no doubt that something similar could be achieved today through a transformation into an ant script. By the way, I've been doing some work on a new Behavior-Driven-Development-based framework, which I have named(!) XSpec. More to come soon... Jeni Tony,

Another good reason for going outside an XSLT-based framework is to test how stylesheet parameters should change the output.

I have a dream of having an platform-neutral XSLT test document format which could be implemented in any language. One method would be a transformation into an XProc pipeline, which you then run. XProc has the advantage of being able to set parameters, catch errors (messages), and passes on multiple result documents as one of the outputs of the XSLT step. I have no doubt that something similar could be achieved today through a transformation into an ant script.

By the way, I’ve been doing some work on a new Behavior-Driven-Development-based framework, which I have named(!) XSpec. More to come soon…

Jeni

]]> Comment on Dictating viral marketing by tkg http://tkg.menteith.com/2008/05/29/dictating-viral-marketing/#comment-3615 tkg Fri, 30 May 2008 09:17:06 +0000 http://tkg.menteith.com/2008/05/29/dictating-viral-marketing/#comment-3615 <p>Your blogging might also be summed up in the terms used in this post as being perhaps a shade worse than what Nuance is doing. As such, it's hard to tell when your opinions are your own and when they'll end up as an item on an invoice.</p> <p>Surely the end result of viral or buzz marketing is that no-one will believe any "personal" opinions they read on the Web? It perhaps won't be too long before "Don't believe personal product reviews" appears alongside "Don't give out your credit card number" in beginners' guides to using the Internet.</p> Your blogging might also be summed up in the terms used in this post as being perhaps a shade worse than what Nuance is doing. As such, it’s hard to tell when your opinions are your own and when they’ll end up as an item on an invoice.

Surely the end result of viral or buzz marketing is that no-one will believe any “personal” opinions they read on the Web? It perhaps won’t be too long before “Don’t believe personal product reviews” appears alongside “Don’t give out your credit card number” in beginners’ guides to using the Internet.

]]> Comment on Dictating viral marketing by brettbum http://tkg.menteith.com/2008/05/29/dictating-viral-marketing/#comment-3614 brettbum Thu, 29 May 2008 20:00:16 +0000 http://tkg.menteith.com/2008/05/29/dictating-viral-marketing/#comment-3614 I actually found your article kind of funny and ironical. I received an email from Nuance about their competition. I thought that entering was a bit of a waste of time and of my efforts. I earn a living as a blogger (wide encompassing set of skills and consulting services that are best summed up as blogger). Instead of looking at their request as a call to shill for Nuance, I looked at it as a call for free content and writing. Work that if I were paid for would cost a lot more than 'free' or even a video game or even a free copy of DNS. All that said, I do use DNS and recommend it highly even if you suffer from no physical disabilities. I myself am fortunate to have good health and I can type about 90 words a minute but still use DNS 9 about 45 percent of the time. I actually found your article kind of funny and ironical. I received an email from Nuance about their competition. I thought that entering was a bit of a waste of time and of my efforts.
I earn a living as a blogger (wide encompassing set of skills and consulting services that are best summed up as blogger).
Instead of looking at their request as a call to shill for Nuance, I looked at it as a call for free content and writing. Work that if I were paid for would cost a lot more than ‘free’ or even a video game or even a free copy of DNS.

All that said, I do use DNS and recommend it highly even if you suffer from no physical disabilities. I myself am fortunate to have good health and I can type about 90 words a minute but still use DNS 9 about 45 percent of the time.

]]> Comment on Linking to Trac tickets in email by tkg http://tkg.menteith.com/2008/02/12/linking-to-trac-tickets-in-email/#comment-3592 tkg Fri, 16 May 2008 12:42:49 +0000 http://tkg.menteith.com/2008/02/12/linking-to-trac-tickets-in-email/#comment-3592 <p>A later rendition that moved the "/ticket/" to the individual 'trac-base' URLs makes this be equally useful for linking to Bugzilla tickets since the 'trac-base' can then be of the form ""http://www.example.com/show_bug.cgi?id=".</p> A later rendition that moved the “/ticket/” to the individual ‘trac-base’ URLs makes this be equally useful for linking to Bugzilla tickets since the ‘trac-base’ can then be of the form “”http://www.example.com/show_bug.cgi?id=”.

]]> Comment on “Could not find a valid processor version implementation” with Ant junitreport task by tkg http://tkg.menteith.com/2008/04/24/could-not-find-a-valid-processor-version-implementation-with-ant-task/#comment-3578 tkg Tue, 29 Apr 2008 14:45:01 +0000 http://tkg.menteith.com/2008/04/24/could-not-find-a-valid-processor-version-implementation-with-ant-task/#comment-3578 <p>I do use the <factory> element with the <xslt> task, but it's not an option with the <junitreport> task in Ant 1.6.5.</p> I do use the <factory> element with the <xslt> task, but it’s not an option with the <junitreport> task in Ant 1.6.5.

]]> Comment on “Could not find a valid processor version implementation” with Ant junitreport task by Anthony B. Coates http://tkg.menteith.com/2008/04/24/could-not-find-a-valid-processor-version-implementation-with-ant-task/#comment-3576 Anthony B. Coates Sun, 27 Apr 2008 21:43:37 +0000 http://tkg.menteith.com/2008/04/24/could-not-find-a-valid-processor-version-implementation-with-ant-task/#comment-3576 Oh dear, Wordpress comments swallow tags in comments. Oh well. What I wrote is that I usually use a <factory> element within the <xslt> task element to get the same effect. Should work with 1.6.5 as well as 1.7.0. Cheers, Tony. Oh dear, Wordpress comments swallow tags in comments. Oh well. What I wrote is that I usually use a <factory> element within the <xslt> task element to get the same effect. Should work with 1.6.5 as well as 1.7.0.
Cheers, Tony.

]]> Comment on “Could not find a valid processor version implementation” with Ant junitreport task by Anthony B. Coates http://tkg.menteith.com/2008/04/24/could-not-find-a-valid-processor-version-implementation-with-ant-task/#comment-3575 Anthony B. Coates Sun, 27 Apr 2008 21:42:14 +0000 http://tkg.menteith.com/2008/04/24/could-not-find-a-valid-processor-version-implementation-with-ant-task/#comment-3575 I usually use a element within the task element to get the same effect. Cheers, Tony. I usually use a element within the task element to get the same effect.
Cheers, Tony.

]]> Comment on Concepts, Techniques, and Models of Computer Programming by tkg http://tkg.menteith.com/2008/04/03/concepts-techniques-and-models-of-computer-programming/#comment-3566 tkg Wed, 23 Apr 2008 15:19:20 +0000 http://tkg.menteith.com/2008/04/03/concepts-techniques-and-models-of-computer-programming/#comment-3566 <p>From the web page (http://pagesperso-systeme.lip6.fr/Christian.Queinnec/WWW/LiSP.html) for the book:</p> <p>This book covers Lisp, Scheme and other related dialects, their interpretation, semantics and compilation. To sum it up in a few figures: 500 pages, 11 chapters, 11 interpreters and 2 compilers.</p> <p>If you haven't finished SICP, then you won't want this book.</p> <p>If you're looking for resources for learning Scheme, there's a list at http://community.schemewiki.org/?category-texts that might help.</p> From the web page (http://pagesperso-systeme.lip6.fr/Christian.Queinnec/WWW/LiSP.html) for the book:

This book covers Lisp, Scheme and other related dialects, their interpretation, semantics and compilation. To sum it up in a few figures: 500 pages, 11 chapters, 11 interpreters and 2 compilers.

If you haven’t finished SICP, then you won’t want this book.

If you’re looking for resources for learning Scheme, there’s a list at http://community.schemewiki.org/?category-texts that might help.

]]> Comment on Concepts, Techniques, and Models of Computer Programming by Dave Pawson http://tkg.menteith.com/2008/04/03/concepts-techniques-and-models-of-computer-programming/#comment-3556 Dave Pawson Sun, 06 Apr 2008 08:11:31 +0000 http://tkg.menteith.com/2008/04/03/concepts-techniques-and-models-of-computer-programming/#comment-3556 Any comments on 'Lisp in Small Pieces' Tony? Not a book I've come across, though I've read (most of) SICP. Any comments on ‘Lisp in Small Pieces’ Tony? Not a book I’ve come across, though I’ve read (most of) SICP.

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