Moved to www.iqadan.com

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iPhone test development with UISpec

iPhone apps are becoming more complex, which means rigorous testing is needed throughout the development cycle. You can get away with manual exploratory testing, but we all know this is error prone. Therefore, you need to rely on automated tests that validates your core functionality executed regularly, in additions to performing exploratory testing.

The iPhone SDK already comes with UIRecorder, which is part of the Instruments app. However, from my brief experience with it I found it not very flexible, and does not offer scripting capability.

This is where UISpec comes in play.

UISpec seems to offer scripting capability using Objective-C, and it's open source. Check it out link. I will write up a more detailed review in the upcoming days.

Also checkout this short video which demonstrate an automated test using UISpec.

What does it mean to be a developer?

I remember in the late 90's there was a lot of talk about the already made software packages, and how they will take over the industry, and that the needs for software developers will be reduced over time and to be replaced by Functional Analysts. Of course that shift never happened, and software developers demand have continue to increase there after.

However, since the introduction of the iPhone SDK, being a developer changed drastically, especially iPhone developer. For the first time software developers are utilizing their skills to invest into their own company, creating their products, that resulted in over 140,000 apps in less than 20 months. That's amazing!

Software Developers used to be just a day to day workers, but now thanks to the iPhone, that changed. Developers are company owners managing everything from the product design and analysis, development, marketing, testing, support, maintenance.

The opportunities will grow substantially with the introduction of the iPAD. Imagine what the same experienced developers who had been busy developing for the iPhone, what they will do with for the iPAD, with it's bigger screen.

The future is definitely very bright for the developers. Now it makes more sense why Steve Ballmer when he repeated over and over: Developers, developers, developers :)

iPad initial feedback

Disappointed indeed:

- No initial Arabic support. link. So existing Arabic-only apps will not run initially until the next software update. Same thing true for using Safari to browse websites with Arabic.
Update: According to iPhoneIslam Arabic text will be supported across all the Apps, including Safari, except support for Arabic keyboard will be supported as part of the initial release.

- No Camera. In additions not having the video chat capability, this will be limiting for software developers in creating apps utilizing the camera, for example note-taking, or Augmented Reality ...

- No flash support. not promising at all; not a good web experience.

- No Multitasking? this is what annoying me the most ...

On the bright side, this will open more opportunities for developers ...