Run Tests - Without Focus Loss!

I like unit tests - but running them can be painful. Commit-validation tests which bring up UI are obviously annoying, but even simple unit tests that get in the way. Does this look familiar? The above menubar should look familiar to anyone on a Mac who's run unit tests for client side Java code. Not necessarily GUI tests, just any test where GUI libraries are loaded. For every testcase, the test runner fires up a new process, which tells OSX that "I'm graphical, give me focus!", and this steals the focus from the user. The test finishes quickly thereafter, the process quits - and then the test runner goes to the next test and the whole cycle starts over. This is really painful because I like to have lots of tests. The Python editor support for Netbeans had 600+ tests; the counts for the JavaScript support was higher, and the Ruby support even higher than that. Whenever I run tests, I basically have to fight with my computer to get focus. Forget trying to write anything - every second or so my keystrokes get stolen as the next test grabs focus - so I've gotten in the habit of using the time for browsing, since I'm mostly reading, and I can handle clicking a link a second time if the first click got lost. But every now and then somebody will ping me on instant messaging - and it's maddening trying to respond while this is going on. If this is sounding painfully familiar to you, I have good news. I've finally figured out a...

Date: May, 15 2009
Url: http://blogs.sun.com/tor/entry/run_tests_without_focus_loss

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