Unit Testing Java with Jython and JRuby

JUnit is great. Jython and JRuby are even better. Unit testing libraries look the same everywhere, so why not use the one that lets you get your job done faster?

Unit testing has taken the world by storm. Almost every major language has a JUnit-like library. And here's the good news: These libraries are so similar that once you learn one, you can use any of them.

Given that many languages interoperate directly with Java, you aren't limited to JUnit. You can pick the library that provides the best language level support for writing concise, easily maintainable unit tests. Circa late 2005, there are good arguments for the unittest module in Jython, and Test::Unit in JRuby.

The talk is divided into three parts:

1. A crash introduction to unit testing Java code. We'll cover test-driven development, test cases, assertions, fixtures, and test suites. We'll be using Jython and JRuby but the concepts are exactly the same in any language
2. A look at the Python and Ruby features that make Jython and JRuby compelling choices. We'll see how tests are faster to develop and easier to maintain than JUnit tests. And perhaps surprisingly, we'll also see how tests scale better when applications get large.
3. A candid comparison of Jython, JRuby, and JUnit, including advantages and disadvantages of each. One size does not fit all.

About Stuart Halloway

Stuart Halloway is a founder and President of Cognitect, Inc. (www.cognitect.com). He is a Clojure committer, and a developer of the Datomic database.

Stuart has spoken at a variety of industry events, including StrangeLoop, Clojure/conj, EuroClojure, ClojureWest, SpeakerConf, QCon, GOTO, OSCON, RailsConf, RubyConf, JavaOne, and NFJS.

Stuart has written a number of books and technical articles. Of these, he is most proud of Programming Clojure.

Learn more about Stu's presentations on his wiki.

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