unit tests

Unit Test Frameworks
$29.95
[reviewed by XPSD member Paul Hamill]

Unit testing and test-driven development (TDD) is a skill that has been desperately lacking on many of the projects I have been involved with over the last few years. I have tried reading books by Kent Beck and others on this subject, but I have always had trouble getting to the next level of applying the skills to "real" problems. This book does not take the approach of claiming to teach you how to be a great test-driven developer, instead it is a survey of the unit test tools available for many environments today and along the way explains the fundamentals of unit testing and TDD.

If you have read other books on TDD, you may find much of this book a review, however there are many explanations of how some of these tools would be used in actual projects which I found valuable. The discussion of mock objects is a good one which explained some details about how to use mock objects in practice that I didn't understand in reading other sources on the subject. In addition, several tools I was unaware of were discussed that I am interested in looking into for making TDD easier to do. For example, XMLUnit and NUnitForms are 2 tools that would seem to make testing a data-driven GUI application much more manageable.

I would recommend this book for anyone who has an interest in unit testing or test driven development and wants to know what tools are available to do this. Also, this book would be invaluable if you intend to write your own xUnit framework for a language.

Macbeth Literature Guide (Secondary Solutions LLC Teacher Guide)
$18.95
After LOVING the Hamlet Literature Guide I bought a while ago, I decided to try Macbeth. Again, I was extremely pleased with the quality of the materials, but also with the fact that Secondary Solutions and author Kristen Bowers actually accomplish what they claim--I really CAN teach the content standards through literature! These guides are perfect for the high school english teacher, but would also be good for a parent who is homeschooling and has a fear of, or never really understood Shakespeare. PERFECT!

Lifesigns Surgical Unit
$19.99
This game has a alot of text. But that is what I like. There are multiple endings , so it has alot of replay value. There are surgies but i like creating a web of relationships and seeing what will happen. If you want straight surgery than this is not what you want but if you like a bit of both, try life signs. I loved it. But i also loved Hotel dusk and that game was loaded with text.

ASP Key Defender Inert Training/Test Unit (Not for Self Deffense)
$8.50
ASP Key Defender Test (Inert) spray refill insert, developed by ASP, provides the ability to test your Key Defender with its harmless inert spray. Operates in the same way as the original canister.