Pex 0.8 Released, featuring Code Digger and Stubs

  • Article

We just released the most exciting iteration of Pex to this date: version 0.8.

Update: Pex is now a DevLabs project, and available as a Microsoft Download for Visual Studio 2010 CTP. (It won't install without it.)

The Microsoft Research download still comes with the Microsoft Research license, so you cannot use it for commercial purposes, but it's perfect if you just want to try it out, or use it for academic purposes; it targets Visual Studio 2008 Professional, but all you really need is Windows XP with .NET 2.0.

Besides lots of bug fixes and little improvements, this release comes with two huge innovations: Code Digger, and Stubs.

New Experience: Code Digger

Did you ever write some new code, change some old code, or simply look at existing code, and you were not quite sure what it was capable of? Which inputs would trigger a successful "happy" path, and which ones would be rejected? Maybe you were thinking: "If only I had a test suite..."

You can have that test suite! (And you won't have to sweat for it.)

We have added an entirely new way of using Pex: Just right-click somewhere in the code you are currently editing, and then Pex will analyze all the branches in the code.

DiggerRunPexExplorations

Pex shows you a table of interesting input/output values, and you can save all findings as a unit test suite with a single button click.

DiggerSaveAll

There you are. Enjoy your small test suite with high code coverage that integrates with VIsual Studio Team Test!

DiggerTestView

We call this new experience Code Digger. If the short description above didn't quite make sense to you, read my longer post on Code Digger, and check out the full Code Digger tutorial  (it already refers to the forthcoming VS2010, but don't let that stop you).

New Feature: Stubs

Also shipping in this release: Stubs - A Simple Framework For .NET Test Stubs; also comes with a manual.

It's a no-nonsense framework to easily create and maintain lightweight implementations of interfaces and abstract classes.

Stay tuned for more: PDC is coming

There will be further announcements.

And don't forget: Pex is at PDC! Go to our talk at PDC and get the latest demo at the Microsoft Research booth!