Cat-herd's Crook: Enforcing Standards in 10 Programming Languages
summary
MongoDB tries to make ten independent drivers behave the same and finds that plain-English specs and a Python reference implementation lead to divergent interpretations, while Cucumber fails across low-level languages. The actual fix is YAML test suites (published alongside JSON) plus small per-driver harnesses that auto-verify compliance. That system standardizes behavior, lets the project detect nonconforming drivers automatically, and moves from three published specs to tens in progress.
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chapters (17)
- 0:00Start
- 0:43Agenda
- 1:31MongoDB?
- 1:56MongoDB Drivers
- 4:41The Problem
- 8:51The Spec Sayeth
- 9:34Did We Have To Let It Linger?
- 12:23False Starts
- 16:08Cucumber
- 21:26What's YAML?
- 23:23Why YAML?
- 27:23Test specs in YAML
- 29:15YAML unittests
- 33:06YAML integration tests
- 36:17A Brave New World (for specs)
- 38:45YAML doesn't care
- 39:57The Open Source dream...
