I discussed C++ unit testing last time; I thought this time I’d make a quick mention of unit testing in Python with the unittest module (which uses a very similar structure to CppUnit – mostly because they are both based on JUnit). The introspective abilities of dynamic languages like Python make unit test frameworks really… Read More »
Unit testing is the name we give to the idea of writing code that tests our application code automatically. Essentially, its job is to exercise each piece of your application in isolation, and ensure that any data dependent bugs you might introduce accidentally, never make it into production releases. Personally, I also find it makes… Read More »
While C++98 had smart pointers of a sort; they weren’t good enough for use. The language lacked the key feature that makes smart pointers work: move semantics. C++11 has introduced that language feature, and hence has solid smart pointers. The addition of smart pointers gives us some further options for passing references to objects when… Read More »
Last time we covered pointer arguments, and that article was applicable to C and C++. C++ introduced true pass-by-reference semantics. f( O & ) f( const O & ) f(O &) Previously we were careful to note that passing a pointer to a function was still only pass-by-value. The pointer was copied, and then the… Read More »
Consider the declarations of various pointer-to-an-O-accepting functions: f( O * ) f( const O * ) f( O * const ) f( const O * const ) What is the author of f() telling us about what the function will do with the O we reference in each of these cases? This, and subsequent articles,… Read More »
rdiff-backup is about the only backup tool I’ve found acceptable. The key things for me: The (most recent) backup is readable on disk, as is. That is to say that there is no binary format. If the worst came to the worst, I could restore with cp. It keeps a rolling backup automatically. Each new… Read More »