The magazine of the Melbourne PC User Group Open Source Tools For Java Major Keary

Open Source software is rapidly gaining acceptance as prominent vendors join the movement. The features of Open Source are that "the author retains copyright but grants the free use of the software, including the right to modify it, though generally not the right to impose restrictions on the use of the modified product" [Encyclopedia of Computer Science]. Linux is the best known example.

Extreme Programming (XP) "is a lightweight software development process that focuses on feedback, communication, simplicity, and courage" and is closely aligned with open source development. [Java Tools for Extreme Programming].

There are twelve core practices in XP, two of which are automated testing and continuous integration; they are the subject of Java Tools for Extreme Programming, which has the subtitle, Mastering Open Source Tools including Ant, JUnit, and Cactus. The tools covered are:

• Ant, a build tool that enables automation of the build process and has been designed for Java development; it relies on the Java platform to perform file access, compilation, and other tasks necessary for the building of Java projects.
• JUnit is a tool for writing unit tests and lends itself to integration with Ant; "Ant automates the build-and-deploy process, JUnit automates testing".
• Cactus, "an open source framework that provides in-container testing services for Servlets, JSP custom tags, and Servlet Filters".
• HttpUnit, overlaps the functions of Cactus, but there is a difference: Cactus performs unit/integration tests, whereas those performed by HttpUnit are functional.
• JMeter, a Java application "created to load-test and measure system performance".
• JUnitPerf, performs two principal kinds of tests, timed and load.

The book explains in detail what those tools do and how to use them. Real-world examples and case studies are used to illustrate their application. This is a text for professional Java programmers who want to take advantage of readily available open source tools. A companion web site contains all the configuration scripts, build scripts, applications, other source code, and supplementary information to keep readers up to date with the book's subject matter. Compared to other texts of a similar technically level Java Tools for Extreme Programming is very well priced.

Hightower and Lesiecki:  Java Tools for Extreme Programming ISBN 0-471-20708-X Published by Wiley, 516 pp.,  RRP $83.95 incl. GST.

Reprinted from the September 2002 issue of PC Update, the magazine of Melbourne PC User Group, Australia

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