About The Name

FrankWestphal will be showing some aspects of my testing framework at the JAOO conference in two weeks. He asked me what its proper name will be so that he can identify it. When forced, I've been using the name "fit". I picked this from the thesaurus entry for accept/acceptable. I suppose I could claim that it stands for "finished implementation test". Would this be awful? I like names that simply say what something is but maybe with a twist that makes them fun to say. Any ideas. I thank you for your thoughts. Best regards. -- WardCunningham

I've found that if you say just about any name often enough it begins to sound natural. I think that has happened to my working name, "fit". I had two great suggestions, "fixt" (BretPettichord) and "AccepTables" (JoshuaKerievsky). Both are fun to say and a bit quirky (which is good). But both have domain name problems. Fit is hopeless on the domain name front, which is actually good. I'll make the distribution site be http://fit.c2.com.

I'd like to suggest that "AcceptTable" be the jargon name for tabular example data, especially when used for both specification (by example) and validation (by automation). Current data driven tables don't rise to AcceptTable standards because they aren't self explanatory. Please note the change in spelling. This will make it easy to google for the like minded should this catch on.

I know that fit can be confused with FIT, the Florida Institute of Technology. If this is terrible, stop me now. I don't think it is terrible. I hope good vibes rub off each way. -- WardCunningham

As is often the case with acronyms, I'd like to declare after the fact that "fit" stands for Framework for Integrated Test. The integration is at several levels: teams communicating expectations and programs communicating facts. -- WardCunningham

This morning I read the following on http://patternlanguage.com:

"Then what happened is we tried building buildings not just writing down known solutions. What something looks like actually depends on how it is made. If you watch raindrops fall off the tree, you can see that the tear drop shape is formed over time and couldn't get that shape any other way.

"If you look at corn kernels on the cob, you can see that the kernels are not quite straight or even but have grown to fit just so on the cob. It's why we enjoy things that are hand made and find mass produced widgets so boring and would like a house that fits just so in the landscape, and like a jewel, brings forth the charm of the landscape itself.

I like his use of "fit" in the above. There's something about Ward's framework that is attempting to find the proper fit between what describes a system and the system itself. -- JoshuaKerievsky

 
Last edited January 31, 2003
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