More on globalization testing and random Unicode string generation

After a week in Boston presenting at the 3rd Software Testing and Performance Conference I am relaxing in Baltimore (where I grew up) visiting family and friends. For the second year in a row I presented a workshop on functional and structural testing techniques, and also presented a double-track session on GUI test automation using C#. One speaker cancelled at the last moment, so I volunteered to present the globalization testing basics talk I presented at STAR West a few weeks before. At both conferences I promised the attendees a tool to generate strings of random Unicode characters, and while relaxing along the waterfront of Baltimore's inner harbor (the weather was quite beautiful this weekend) I managed to finish the tool (at least I am meeting the functional requirements I wanted to achieve).

So, without further ado, on my site Software Testing Mentor is a new section for tools and utilities where you will find the tool I have named "GString." GString will generate random strings of Unicode characters between the ranges of U+0020 and U+FFFF up to 65,535 characters in length either as a fixed length string or a random length string. The ranges of Unicode code points that are not assigned to a language script, and special areas such as Private use and surrogate areas are excluded from the generated strings. The resultant string can be copied to the clipboard and pasted into the edit control you are testing. (I am already thinking that a 2.0 version will populate the edit control that has focus automatically.)

GString is written in C# and requires the 2.0 .NET runtime available from Microsoft if you don't already have it installed on your computer.

 Well, back up to Boston for a few days before heading home. If you have any comments about the tool (or find any defects) please let me know.