WHITE PAPERS SPONSORED PROFILES JOB BOARD WEBINAR CENTER FREE SOFTWARE BZ RESEARCH ALMSHAREPOINT EVENTS CALENDAR PRINT/PDF EDITION PRINT/PDF BACK ISSUES

SUBSCRIBE TODAY CUSTOMER SERVICE EDITORIAL CALENDAR EDITORIAL BEATS GUEST VIEW GUIDE SD TIMES 100 GUIDE EVENTS CALENDAR ADVERTISING ARTICLE REPRINTS REPORT A BUG SITE MAP

ABOUT US BZ MEDIA NEWS BZ RESEARCH NEWS ON MONDAY SPTECHREPORT SPTECHWEB SPTECHCON IPHONE/IPAD DEVCON ANDROID DEVCON PRIVACY POLICY CONTACT US

HOME >> LATEST NEWS

Pillar brings test-driven development to legacy Java apps

By Alex Handy

November 25, 2008 — (Page 1 of 2)
When a development team is starting a program from scratch, it is easy for them to implement test-driven development (TDD). Greenfield projects are easy to cover with unit tests because there's no old code to understand: Coders simply write their tests while they write the code.

But legacy Java applications are a different story altogether. If an application is even older than JUnit, it is unlikely that there are unit tests embedded. Gary Gentry's Pillar Technologies is aiming to bring TDD to these legacy applications.

Gentry is the founder and CEO of Pillar, and he said that his many years of running his software development consulting company have proven to him that agile and TDD are true game changers. Now, he and his team of around 100 consultants are hoping to use their new tool, Verde, to push unit tests into code from as far back as Java 1.3.

“Verde is an intelligent recording device that lives inside the VM. It can position people to be successful with TDD. If you just throw them into an agile project and say 'write tests,' and they need to incorporate that into an existing applications, they will be encumbered with baggage that's too heavy to carry,” said Gentry.

Verde is a tool based on aspect-oriented design practices. Gentry said that just about any legacy Java application can be covered with unit tests in around six- to eight-weeks time. After that, Pillar licenses its Verde technology for US$2,500 for five users.

It's not your typical software package, said Gentry. Verde is a powerful tool, according to Gentry, and he suggested that only those who know how to use it should access it. Thus, he sees Verde as a window to a brief consulting engagement. Once developers on a team are taught how it works, they can do it themselves with the licensed version.

But initially, said Gentry, the task of covering ancient Java code is best left to the experts he employs. The idea is to give development teams a leg up on TDD so that they no longer need fear their legacy code. If it's covered with unit tests, there are no more excuses for not touching the old code for fear of breaking it.

Related Search Term(s): Java, software development, testing, Pillar

Pages 1 2

Share this link: http://sdt.bz/33081

Most Read Latest News Blog Resources

Zeichick’s Take: Radio moves from analog waveforms to digital packets
Streaming radio highlights the need for streaming applications to be designed to take up as little bandwidth as possible

Taking enterprise architecture to the business side
Startup Corso is bringing out a cloud-based planning platform that ties into business plans

Appcelerator Acquires Cocoafish to Add Instant Mobile Cloud Capabilities to its Industry Leading Titanium Platform
Appcelerator Offers Messaging, Social, Location and Storage Mobile Cloud Services to All Mobile App Publishers

ComponentOne Releases a Collection of 40+ UI Widgets Powered by HTML5 and jQuery
ComponentOne has announced the 2012 release of Wijmo: a kit of UI widgets for HTML5 and jQuery development

Taking enterprise architecture to the business side
Startup Corso is bringing out a cloud-based planning platform that ties into business plans

Top five apps to manage your workload
Web applications offer new ways to track your “to-do” lists

Not so fast when it comes to testing in the cloud
Developers face outsourcing, virtual lab management and mobile devices as obstacles

Xceed releases UX-focused suite for Microsoft’s WPF
"Blendables" helps match user experiences to developer visions

Are you at risk for burnout?
Burnout is a severe problem and it can strike at any time. Here's how to tell if you are nearing the edge.

Agility, mom, and apple pie
If we're to evaluate the state-of-the-art in software development, we should start with the values espoused in the Agile Manifesto.

RIM woos developers with free tablet
How do you get more apps ported to the BlackBerry PlayBook? By giving every developer a free tablet, of course!

GitHire: Use Headhunters to Find Your Perfect Programmer
Are you a hiring manager tired of scouring the job boards? Check out this new service that will find 5 people interested in your jobs.

The Hidden Costs of Software Licensing Moving beyond paper-based software licensing to more flexible, software-based licensing is a business decision. There is a growing trend tow...

Case Study: You May Need a Development Mechanic As a contractor for a major financial player in Germany, SOBEGE, a German-based consultancy specializing in embedded IT and web services, wa...

Ensuring Software Quality at a Major International Bank One of the world’s leading international banks has adopted AgitarOne technology for delivering generated unit tests for their Java software...

Load Testing Adobe Flex Applications Adobe Flex applications may be different from applications you’ve worked with before. For classic HTML web applications, the server does all...

Technorati

Digg

Slashdot

Facebook

Friendfeed

Twitter

del.icio.us

News Briefs: July 15, 2008 Enea is named to the board of CP-TA, Teradata introduces a new version of its data warehousing tool and SOA Software upgraded its Repository Manager to accommodate its Policy Manager software.

Third-party tools showcased at Professional Developers Conference ComponentOne has a new development kit for the iPhone and the iPod Touch, while Infragistics created a version of NetAdvantage for Silverlight. Also, Developer Express and Microsoft announced a joint code-quality effort for C#.

Lost in translation Product testing often brings together the disparate worlds of requirements and specifications, which can lead to development problems. Testing experts weigh in on ways to overcome such hurdles and provide users with the code quality they demand.

Add comment

Name*
Email*
Country

Comment

News Briefs: July 15, 2008
Enea is named to the board of CP-TA, Teradata introduces a new version of its data warehousing tool and SOA Software upgraded its Repository Manager to accommodate its Policy Manager software Read More...

News on Monday
more>>
SharePoint Tech Report
more>>

Download Current Issue
FEBRUARY 2012 PDF ISSUE

Need Back Issues?
DOWNLOAD HERE

Want to subscribe?

Are you at risk for burnout?
Burnout is a severe problem and it can strike at any time. Here's how to tell if you are nearing the edge.
02/09/2012 02:16 PM EST

Agility, mom, and apple pie
If we're to evaluate the state-of-the-art in software development, we should start with the values espoused in the Agile Manifesto.
02/07/2012 11:57 AM EST

RIM woos developers with free tablet
How do you get more apps ported to the BlackBerry PlayBook? By giving every developer a free tablet, of course!
02/04/2012 01:57 PM EST

GitHire: Use Headhunters to Find Your Perfect Programmer
Are you a hiring manager tired of scouring the job boards? Check out this new service that will find 5 people interested in your jobs.
02/03/2012 12:17 PM EST

Facebook claims hacker cred
Facebook's SEC S-1 filing form includes a short essay on the Hacker Way by Mark Zuckerberg himself.
02/02/2012 08:26 AM EST

Ryan Dahl steps down
Ryan Dahl, creator of Node.js, steps back from his position as gatekeeper for the project.
02/01/2012 04:58 PM EST