Pragmatic Unit Testing in C with NUnit by Andrew Hunt & David Thomas

Recently I’ve discovered there are two kinds of technical books:

1. Big honkin’ tech books that I start reading with the best of intentions, get two chapters into and wind up as part of the psuedo-furniture pile of books beside my chair for long periods of time.  Professional C# is one that currently fits that bill.  Don’t get me wrong, it is a great book, but not something I can get psyched about and knock out in a weekend.
2. Smaller, more specific tech books that tackle a certain topic that I am looking to learn more about, are an easy weekend’s read if they are worthwhile, and they quickly move from my “To read” pile to my bookshelf in my home office (one of four, soon to be five in the basement).  If it is really good I will pass it on to guys at work.  If it is really, really good I will move it to my bookshelf at work so it is close at hand when I need it. Pragmatic Unit Testing in C# with NUnit (Pragmatic Programmers) by Andrew Hunt & David Thomas is one that will be going to my bookshelf at work.

I recently received the book in a giveaway at my first visit to a Dayton .NET Developer’s Group meeting.  I was pleasantly surprised because I had just made a point of getting the book a few days prior when I saw one of my co-workers, Ken, reading it.  I was able to read the book in an evening and I truly enjoyed it.  I do have some experience with NUnit so I am no beginner, but I am in no way an expert either.  Much of what I have learned I have learned by example or on my own.  It was good for me to get a thorough understanding of the idealogy and concepts using tools that I use: VS.NET, NUnit, TestDriven.NET, etc.  It helped solidify some of my own assumptions as well as give me a good background and springboard for the future.  It was a good read and a good resource and I highly recommend it.

Now I will have to get hold of the other two books in the series: Pragmatic Version Control using Subversion and Pragmatic Automation (if and when a .NET version becomes available). I will also have to checkout some of the other Pragmatic Programmer titles.

Technorati Tags: NUnit, Unit Testing