API Testing

Things are chugging along fairly well. I've been stuck for a few days on testing a particular set of APIs which have involved figuring out exactly how some of the APIs are supposed to work, as they turn out to be fairly subtle. It's both engaging and frustrating to come across something and go, "Hmm, is that a bug? Or is it supposed to work that way?" and realize that you can build an argument for either case, but you don't yet have enough background to make the judgment call.

Sometimes I keep chugging along and expect to gain the background through further experience, and sometimes I cut to the chase and ask someone. It usually depends on how interesting that particular piece of functionality is to me. Yes, it's capricious, I know. Well, not entirely capricious; presumably I'm being paid in part to make judgment calls about things like this. Overall it's been working out fairly well.

Anyway, I finished this particular test suite today (except for a couple of high-effort, low-priority pieces which I've left 'till later) and checked it in, and then did a little reorganization of our test tool, which it needed, and which would only get harder as we wrote more tests.

Coding is nice.

By the way, API stands for something like "Application Programmer Interface" or something very close to that. Remembering acronyms is not something high on my list of things to be good at! It's basically the parameters, return value, and expected functionality of a function which a programmer can call to get or give information to a system. A UNIX or C system call has an API, for instance.

More mundanely, an ATM has an API of sorts: You give it your card, password, and amount of money you want, and it gives you the money, a receipt, and your card back. Or, if it can't give you the money, it tells you why, and gives you your card back. You can generalize from there. API testing basically involves making sure it gives you the right amount of money, a correct receipt, and the correct card - or the correct reason it can't dispense money, if applicable. If any of these is wrong, or if it - say - doesn't give you a receipt, then the test fails and you complain to a programmer to fix it. (Actually you don't really complain to them. Except that I sometimes complain to Tom, but then he complains to me. We work it all out by killing each other at Quake and laughing maniacally. But I digress.)

Okay, programming-oriented folk can wake up now.

What the heck have I been doing at night? I've been reading Iain Banks' Use of Weapons, which is enjoyable so far. I watched a bunch of television. I spent an hour last night talking to Karen on the phone. I've been continuously playing catch-up with my laundry.

Apparently Spies has been coming under attack from hackers recently, and our password file was swiped. As a result, we all had to change our password, and normal Telnet access to Spies is now disallowed; instead we have to use a secure authenticated connection. Ceej, MacHead that she is, let people know of a good Mac client to use, and it does look pretty spiffy. But it was somewhat frustrating to not be able to check my e-mail for most of a day. Well, these things happen. The 'net can be a dangerous place, these days.

In brighter news, after hours today Apple announced its second-quarter earnings, including a profit of $233 million, which is pretty large, especially for the second fiscal quarter (which ended at the end of March), which is typically (I understand) our slowest quarter. Woo-hoo! Our annual growth triggered a profit-sharing payout which we'll receive at the beginning of the month, which will basically pay for the car insurance bill I just sent in. Yay! Moreover, Apple announced its stock will be splitting 2-for-1, which mathematically seems kind of irrelevant but in practice I guess it's a big psychological factor.

So my options all of a sudden look like they could potentially be worth serious money a few years down the road. Guess I'll be sticking around for a while...

(So everyone go out and buy spiffy new Macintoshes to help bolster my paycheck, eh?)

No gaming tonight; instead I stayed home and read comic books. I keep meaning to write some reviews, but just haven't had that journalling mood recently. Maybe this weekend...