SignatureTests
From APIDesign
Since the rise of XP and other Agile methodologies testing become more and more popular. Not only among dedicated quality departments, but also among developers. It is not surprising that these days a successful projects is not just code, but also set of tests to verify that the release is good enough and that the project moves into correct direction.
The API Design is not exceptional in this aspect. Proper API Design requires testing and verification. The goal when designing an API is to prevent the amoeba shaking effect - e.g. prevent each new release to completely destabilize existing usages. This requires standard unit testing as well, as something special - testing for binary compatibility.
Signature Testing Tools
This is the Ant task that we use in NetBeans:
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