Test & Code

pytest-testmon is a pytest plugin which selects and executes only tests you need to run. It does this by collecting dependencies between tests and all executed code (internally using Coverage.py) and comparing the dependencies against changes. testmon updates its database on each test execution, so it works independently of version control.

In this episode, I talk with testmon creator Tibor Arpas about testmon, about it's use and how it works.

Special Guest: Tibor Arpas.

Links:

• testmon.org
• Determining affected tests
• Tibor's post on using pytest in PyCharm
• runtime-info plugin for PyCharm

This episode is not just a look back on 2019, and a look forward to 2020.
 Also, 2019 is the end of an amazingly transofrmative decade for me, so I'm going to discuss that as well.

top 10 episodes of 2019

• 10: episode 46, Testing Hard To Test Applications - Anthony Shaw
• 9: episode 64, Practicing Programming to increase your value
• 8: episode 70, Learning Software without a CS degree - Dane Hillard
• 7: episode 75, Modern Testing Principles - Alan Page
• 6: episode 72, Technical Interview Fixes - April Wensel
• 5: episode 69, Andy Hunt - The Pragmatic Programmer
• 4: episode 73, PyCon 2019 Live Recording
• 3: episode 71, Memorable Tech Talks, The Ultimate Guide - Nina Zakharenko
• 2: episode 76, TDD: Don’t be afraid of Test-Driven Development - Chris May
• 1: episode 89, Improving Programming Education - Nicholas Tollervey

Looking back on the last decade
Some amazing events, like 2 podcasts, a book, a blog, speaking events, and teaching has led me to where we're at now.

Looking forward to 2020 and beyond
I discussed what's in store in the next year and moving forward.

A closing quote
Software is a blast. At least, it should be. 
I want everyone to have fun writing software. 
Leaning on automated tests is the best way I know to allow me confidence and freedome to:

• rewrite big chunks of code
• play with the code
• try new things
• have fun without fear
• go home feeling good about what I did
• be proud of my code I want everyone to have that.

That's why I promote and teach automated testing.

I hope you had an amazing decade. 
 And I wish you a productive and fun 2020 and the upcoming decade.
 If we work together and help eachother reach new heights, we can achieve some pretty amazing things

Links:

• Thanks, 201X! — Mahmoud Hashemi's blog

Pipelines are used a lot in software projects to automated much of the work around build, test, deployment and more. Thomas Eckert talks with me about pipelines, specifically Azure Pipelines. Some of the history, and how we can use pipelines for modern Python projects.

Special Guest: Thomas Eckert.

Links:

• click repo
• Azure Pipelines Action · Actions · GitHub Marketplace

Data science and machine learning are affecting more of our lives every day. Decisions based on data science and machine learning are heavily dependent on the quality of the data, and the quality of the data pipeline.

Some of the software in the pipeline can be tested to some extent with traditional testing tools, like pytest.

But what about the data? The data entering the pipeline, and at various stages along the pipeline, should be validated.

That's where pipeline tests come in.

Pipeline tests are applied to data. Pipeline tests help you guard against upstream data changes and monitor data quality.

Abe Gong and Superconductive are building an open source project called Great Expectations. It's a tool to help you build pipeline tests.

This is quite an interesting idea, and I hope it gains traction and takes off.

Special Guest: Abe Gong.

Links:

• Great Expectations

You've applied for a job, maybe lots of jobs.
 Depending on the company, you've gotta get through:

• a resume review
• a coding challange
• a phone screen
• maybe another code example
• an in person interview

If you get the job, and you enjoy the work, awesome, congratulations.

If you don't get the job, it'd be really great to know why.

Sometimes it isn't because you aren't a skilled engineer.

What other reasons are there?

Well, that's what we're talking about today.

Charity Majors is the cofounder and CTO of Honeycomb.io, and we're going to talk about reasons for not hiring someone.

This is a very informative episode both for people who job hunt in the future and for hiring managers and people on the interview team.

Special Guest: Charity Majors.

Links:

• The (Real) 11 Reasons I Don’t Hire You — The article

Andy Knight is the Automation Panda. 

Andy Knight is passionate about software testing, and shares his passion through public speaking, writing on automationpanda.com, teaching as an adjunct professor, and now also through writing a book and organizing a new regional Python conference.

Topics of this episode include:

• Andy's book on software testing
• Being an adjunct professor
• Public speaking and preparing talk proposals 
  • including tips from Andy about proposals and preparing for talks
• PyCarolinas

Special Guest: Andy Knight.

Links:

• Automation Panda
• Andy's Speaking events
• PyCarolinas 2020

Cristian Medina wrote an article recently called "Test Engineering Anti-Patterns: Destroy Your Customer Satisfaction and Crater Your Quality By Using These 9 Easy Organizational Practices"

Of course, it's sarcastic, and aims to highlight many problems with organizational practices that reduce software quality.

The article doesn't go out of character, and only promotes the anti-patterns.
 However, in this interview, we discuss each point, and the corollary of what you really should do. At least, our perspectives.

Here's the list of all the points discussed in the article and in this episode:

1. Make the Test teams solely responsible for quality
2. Require all tests to be automated before releasing
3. Require 100% code coverage
4. Isolate the Test organization from Development
5. Measure the success of the process, not the product. 
   • Metrics, if rewarded, will always be gamed.
6. Require granular projections from engineers
7. Reward quick patching instead of solving
8. Plan for today instead of tomorrow

Special Guest: Cristian Medina.

Links:

• Test Engineering Anti-Patterns: Destroy Your Customer Satisfaction and Crater Your Quality By Using These 9 Easy Organizational Practices — The article we discuss in the show.
• tryexceptpass — Cris's blog

Python 3.8.0 final is live and ready to download.

On todays episode, we're going to run through what's new, picking out the bits that I think are the most interesting and affect the most people, including

Not just the big stuff everyone's already talking about. But also some little things that will make programming Python even more fun and easy.

I'm excited about Python 3.8. And really, this episode is to my way to try to get you excited about it too.

Links:

• What’s New In Python 3.8 - at docs.python.org
• Download Python 3.8 at Python.org

pytest 5.2 was just released, and with it, a cool fun feature called dynamic scope fixtures. Anthony Sottile so tilly is one of the pytest core developers, so I thought it be fun to have Anthony describe this new feature for us.

We also talk about parametrized testing and really what is fixture scope and then what is dynamic scope.

Special Guest: Anthony Sottile.

Links:

• pytest changelog
• pytest fixtures
• dynamic scope fixtures
• episode 82: pytest - favorite features since 3.0
• the pytest book — Python Testing with pytest

Nicholas Tollervey is working toward better ways of teaching programming. His projects include the Mu Editor, PyperCard, and CodeGrades. Many of us talk about problems with software education. Nicholas is doing something about it.

Special Guest: Nicholas Tollervey.

Links:

• Code With Mu — a simple Python editor for beginner programmers
• Made With Mu — A blog to celebrate projects that use the Mu Python code editor to create cool stuff.
• PyperCard — Easy GUIs for All
• CodeGrades