# Best practices for library development?

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/best-practices-for-library-development/95363>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [May 30, 2006, 2:16pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/best-practices-for-library-development/95363 "2006-05-30T14:16:10Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 7\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![victor123789](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/v/f0a364/32.png) [@victor123789](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/victor123789)\
**Post date:** [May 30, 2006, 2:16pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/best-practices-for-library-development/95363/1 "2006-05-30T14:16:10Z")

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Hi all.

I’d like somebody to share their experience in organizing library  
development, including:

1. test-driven development
2. code coverage analysis (through rcov?), which would be automathically  
performed after each test
3. version control (through SVN?)
4. optional code speed analysis (like benchmarking “how long it rans”,  
profiling “what rans so long”) after each test
5. optional packaging (through rake? rant?) and uploading to (rubyforge?  
sourcefoge?)

All experiences are welcome.

Big thanks!

Victor.

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**Author:** ![victor123789](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/v/f0a364/32.png) [@victor123789](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/victor123789)\
**Post date:** [May 30, 2006, 4:23pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/best-practices-for-library-development/95363/2 "2006-05-30T16:23:45Z")

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Victor S. wrote:

> 1. optional code speed analysis (like benchmarking “how long it rans”,  
> profiling “what rans so long”) after each test

See the ‘profile’ library provided in Ruby core.

ruby -r profile  
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iD8DBQFEfFTnmV9O7RYnKMcRAspCAJ9jrtB3qER8px6fV7LOuB8jvlM2mACgpcVY  
jeMAo7c1AuHZ63cynsPelE4=  
=EPvT  
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**Author:** ![victor123789](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/v/f0a364/32.png) [@victor123789](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/victor123789)\
**Post date:** [May 30, 2006, 4:30pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/best-practices-for-library-development/95363/3 "2006-05-30T16:30:08Z")

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From: Suraj N. Kurapati [[mailto:removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid)]  
Sent: Tuesday, May 30, 2006 5:22 PM

> Victor S. wrote:
> 
> > 1. optional code speed analysis (like benchmarking “how long it rans”,  
> > profiling “what rans so long”) after each test
> 
> See the ‘profile’ library provided in Ruby core.
> 
> ruby -r profile

No-no 🙂  
I know, how to do it _technically_.  
What I what to know is how to _organize_ all the task.  
Just for now I do only unit-tests, but _when_ to run benchmarking /  
profiling / coverage analysis / dependency analysis and so on? Must  
those  
tasks be ran automataically? When (after any code change, like unit  
tests?)  
This is a question.

V.

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**Author:** ![victor123789](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/v/f0a364/32.png) [@victor123789](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/victor123789)\
**Post date:** [May 30, 2006, 4:39pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/best-practices-for-library-development/95363/4 "2006-05-30T16:39:17Z")

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On 5/30/06, Victor S. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote:

> Hi all.
> 
> I’d like somebody to share their experience in organizing library  
> development, including:
> 
> 1. test-driven development

Yes.

Test::Unit I believe. “require ‘test/unit’”.

> 1. code coverage analysis (through rcov?), which would be automathically  
> performed after each test

Never used rcov, but it sounds like something you’d run via a rakefile.

> 1. version control (through SVN?)

Besides CVS, that’s probably the most common these days. Working  
without version control is like swinging on the trapeze without a net.

> 1. optional code speed analysis (like benchmarking “how long it rans”,  
> profiling “what rans so long”) after each test
> 2. optional packaging (through rake? rant?) and uploading to (rubyforge?  
> sourcefoge?)

Dunno about the benchmarking, but as far as optional packaging, my  
guess is that you should indeed be making a gem. FWIU, when you create  
a RubyForge project and upload a gem, it automagically becomes  
available to the world via “gem install --remote”.

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**Author:** ![victor123789](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/v/f0a364/32.png) [@victor123789](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/victor123789)\
**Post date:** [May 30, 2006, 6:40pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/best-practices-for-library-development/95363/5 "2006-05-30T18:40:45Z")

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On May 30, 2006, at 10:27 AM, Victor S. wrote:

> No-no 🙂  
> I know, how to do it _technically_.  
> What I what to know is how to _organize_ all the task.  
> Just for now I do only unit-tests, but _when_ to run benchmarking /  
> profiling / coverage analysis / dependency analysis and so on? Must  
> those  
> tasks be ran automataically? When (after any code change, like unit  
> tests?)  
> This is a question.

Personally, I don’t think I’d want my tests run after _every_  
change. But you might want to look into subversion’s hook scripts.  
(post-commit, pre-commit, etc…). The would allow the repository to  
run all the tests/profiling/coverage via rake and email the results  
to interested parties upon every commit.

BUT, I wouldn’t focus too much on getting a lot of testing and  
profiling set up if you’re just getting started. Although ruby makes  
most of this stuff really easy, you’ll still burn time and energy  
that might be better focused on the real task. Don’t optimize too  
early.  
-Mat

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**Author:** ![victor123789](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/v/f0a364/32.png) [@victor123789](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/victor123789)\
**Post date:** [May 30, 2006, 6:56pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/best-practices-for-library-development/95363/6 "2006-05-30T18:56:34Z")

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On Tue, May 30, 2006 at 11:27:51PM +0900, Victor S. wrote:

> No-no 🙂  
> I know, how to do it _technically_.  
> What I what to know is how to _organize_ all the task.  
> Just for now I do only unit-tests, but _when_ to run benchmarking /  
> profiling / coverage analysis / dependency analysis and so on? Must those  
> tasks be ran automataically? When (after any code change, like unit tests?)  
> This is a question.

As for coverage analysis: I run rcov before committing to make sure I’m  
not  
checking in (lots of) untested code. This is how the task can be defined  
in  
Rake:

require ‘rcov/rcovtask’  
desc “Create a cross-referenced code coverage report.”  
Rcov::RcovTask.new do |t|  
t.libs \<\< “ext/rcovrt”  
t.test\_files = FileList[‘test/test\*.rb’]  
t.rcov\_opts \<\< “–callsites” # comment to disable cross-references  
t.verbose = true  
end

and in Rant it’d be:

require ‘rcov/rant’  
desc “Create a cross-referenced code coverage report.”  
gen Rcov do |g|  
g.libs \<\< “ext/rcovrt”  
g.test\_files = sys[‘test/test\*.rb’]  
g.rcov\_opts \<\< “–callsites” # comment to disable cross-references  
end

This way {rake,rant} rcov will generate a XHTML report and show  
another  
on stdout.

If your commits are small enough (or should I say “atomic”?), running  
the  
tests just before committing (say with the pre-commit hook of your VCS)  
might  
suffice. Otherwise (larger commits, or tests that don’t want to pass)  
autotest  
would be the way to go, I guess.

Regarding profiling, I don’t think it makes any sense to run that  
automatically in general.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![victor123789](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/v/f0a364/32.png) [@victor123789](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/victor123789)\
**Post date:** [May 30, 2006, 7:09pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/best-practices-for-library-development/95363/7 "2006-05-30T19:09:08Z")

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From: Mauricio Julio Fernandez Pradier [[mailto:removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid)]  
On  
Behalf Of Mauricio F.  
Sent: Tuesday, May 30, 2006 7:53 PM

> > > ruby -r profile
> 
> t.test\_files = FileList[‘test/test\*.rb’]  
> g.test\_files = sys[‘test/test\*.rb’]  
> autotest  
> would be the way to go, I guess.
> 
> Regarding profiling, I don’t think it makes any sense to run that  
> automatically in general.

Thanks Mauricio. It’s just what I’ve want to hear.

> Mauricio F. - [http://eigenclass.org](http://eigenclass.org) - singular Ruby

V.