Software Engineering Stack Exchange
Software Engineering Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [automation]

Automation is the use of machines, control systems and information technologies to optimize productivity in the production of goods and delivery of services.

Definition taken from Wikipedia.

120 questions
70
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13 answers

Would it be a bad idea to periodically run code formatters on a repository?

I'm thinking of creating a cron job that checks out code, runs code formatters on it, and if anything changed, commits the changes and pushes them back. Most projects that use autoformatters put them in a git hook, but doing it automatically every…
bigblind
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62
votes
12 answers

Is there any logical reason to auto-generate code documentation?

Automatic documentation generation can be done with a variety of tools, GhostDoc being one of the more prominent. However, by definition, everything it generates is redundant. It takes a look at names of methods, classes, etc. and outputs English…
Jez
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59
votes
5 answers

How can you estimate time for tasks which primarily consist of figuring out a problem?

While it is relatively possible for an experienced developer to estimate how long it will take to implement code when the pattern and problem the code is solving is well understood, how can you make a good estimate when, while the end goal is well…
AJ Henderson
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48
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11 answers

What are the disadvantages of automated testing?

There are a number of questions on this site that give plenty of information about the benefits that can be gained from automated testing. But I didn't see anything that represented the other side of the coin: what are the disadvantages? …
RationalGeek
  • 10,077
31
votes
7 answers

Automated unit testing, integration testing or acceptance testing

TDD and unit testing seems to be the big rave at the moment. But it is really that useful compared to other forms of automated testing? Intuitively I would guess that automated integration testing is way more useful than unit testing. In my…
Bjarke Freund-Hansen
  • 1,186
18
votes
20 answers

What are the most impressive tricks an IDE could pull off with the code?

Modern IDEs have a lot of tricks up their sleeves to help with code writing, refactoring, searching. All those are very helpful, but rarely any of them looks like a real "magic" and makes me think "Wow! How did it figure that out?" Can you name any…
serg
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15
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6 answers

Can you make a build in one step?

From the joel test: Can you make a build in one step? I've got to say I can't. I'm currently working on a web app that has a spreadsheet list of items that must be carried out in order to deploy. So my question is how can I automate this? Does…
billy.bob
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15
votes
8 answers

How do you deal with boring repetitive tasks and activities?

When you encounter in your work some boring, repetitive (possibly not-programming) task how do you deal with it? Do you try to automate it immediately? Do you postpone automation till you encounter the task twice? Do you try to delegate it? Do you…
Alexey
  • 1,269
15
votes
6 answers

What does "automated build" mean?

I'm trying to add Continuous Integration to a project. According to Wikipedia, one major piece of CI is automated builds. However, I'm confused about what, exactly, that means, as the CI and build automation articles seem to disagree. Specific…
user39685
12
votes
8 answers

How to Deal With The "Automation is Easy" Mindset?

The title says it all. Some employees in our company believe that automated tests are "easy" and that it "should take a day" to write suites of COM and UI tests. What can be done to counter this? Note: I'm not asking about how to promote…
joshin4colours
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11
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3 answers

How to monitor a long-running program programmatically

What I've currently got can be summed up with this pseudo code: public static void Main(string[] args) { var listOfObjects = Database.GetObjectsToUploadToOnlineService(); Parallel.ForEach(Upload) } private static void Upload(MyUploadObject…
Robert Snyder
  • 213
11
votes
3 answers

Storing passwords for usage in scripts

There are few situations that require users to provide their password while automating things during development process. Site deployment is only one of the common situations. Creating dmg files under OS X requires password as well. Most of the…
Eimantas
  • 1,026
10
votes
8 answers

Use a GUI designer or write it yourself for the desktop?

Writing a GUI for a program has always been a daunting, depressing, and frustrating task. It doesn't matter which language, its extremely hard to get what I want. Especially in compiled languages like Java where a change takes a minute or two to…
TheLQ
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10
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9 answers

Automated build platform for .NET portfolio - best choice?

I am involved with maintaining a fairly large portfolio of .NET applications. Also in the portfolio are legacy applications built on top of other platforms - native C++, ECLIPS Forms, etc. I have a complex build framework on top of NAnt right now…
RationalGeek
  • 10,077
10
votes
3 answers

Can I use Ruby to automate everything?

I face various types of applications (web-based, GUI-based, command-line, etc.) on various platforms (Windows, Linux, etc.) to operate everyday. There is a great opportunity for me to automate tasks by scripting. But almost every type of application…
TomCaps
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