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New test framework takes advantage of Scala


By Jeff Feinman
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October 12, 2009 —  Software development and publishing company Artima has created an open-source testing framework that aims to speed up tests by leveraging the Scala programming language.

ScalaTest 1.0, released today, can reduce the amount of test code lines required in testing, Artima executives claimed. This reduction in code lines is a product of Scala, an object-oriented language that compiles to Java bytecode and runs on the Java Virtual Machine.

“Scala lets you express yourself much more concisely compared to Java,” said Bill Venners, president of Artima. “ScalaTest uses Scala to make testing code much more concise and clear.”

ScalaTest 1.0 integrates with the JUnit and TestNG testing frameworks so that users can work ScalaTest into their existing projects. It also integrates with Ant and Maven for build tasks. The framework can run on multiple processor cores for parallel testing.

“ScalaTest will use those CPUs to speed up the test,” Venners said. “That’s a big problem. A lot of people spend a lot time waiting for tests to run today. So by letting tests run in parallel, you can exploit all the cores you have.”

With ScalaTest 1.0, testers can do unit, functional, integration and acceptance testing. The framework can cater to test-driven development, behavior-driven development and other development methodologies.

In explaining the benefits of Scala and why a Java developer would learn it, Venners said, “I think that the real story is that any successful language becomes difficult to enhance over time because you have to maintain backwards compatibility with source code. Java hit that wall a few years ago.”

As a result, new languages such as Groovy, JRuby and Scala began springing up on the Java platform to tie up the shortcomings in Java productivity. One of Scala’s benefits is that it has a static type system, similar to Java’s, that can do static type checking to find errors during a compile.

“That’s why some people see it as a potential successor to Java,” Venners said of the static type.

Scala’s functional programming capability is also an asset, Venners said. Traditionally, Java involves more object-oriented programming, but Scala brings a functional/object hybrid language. The functional programming aspect of Scala is what makes it faster and more productive than Java for developers, he said.




Related Search Term(s): Artima, Scala, testing


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Comments


10/12/2009 02:48:25 PM EST

Jeff - the other emerging "framwork" related to Scala is the Lift Web Development Framework (www.liftweb.net). Twitter, eBay, SAP and others are using it and trying to determine if its the 'next thing.' Disclosre: I have no affiliations with the project, but know its creator, David Pollak. David and Lift are drawing a lot of attention these days.

United StatesKF


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