• Site Updates
  23 September 2020

  I have rolled out some updates and enhancements to the website:

  • Reviews have been updated to include a new index - Reviews by Rating - and review ratings have been added to all of the indexes.
  • The first ACCU Online video has been added to Videos. You can find Chris Oldwood's "A Test of Strength" here.
  • All pages have been re-proportioned to give a little more room to the content, and a little less room for the advertising.
  • There is now a big Join ACCU button on the right-hand-side of most pages.
  • Several members-only AGM-related pages have been migrated from the old site.

  Here are some things you might have missed on the new website:

  • Want to get these news items delivered? Sign up for the RSS feed. The RSS link can be found by clicking on the RSS symbol at the top of each page, or the corresponding item in the Links column at the bottom of each page.
  • The carousel on the home page stops rotating if you place your computer cursor on it.
  • The World of Code blog aggregator, and the Essential Books wiki, haven't disappeared. They are still available via entries in the Links column in the footer.

  If you find a problem (like a broken link), or have a suggestion, send an email to the Web Editor. You will find the email link in the Contacts column in the footer.

  Jim and I have gotten help with the new site:

  • Russel Winder and Ian Bruntlett provided feedback on the content and layouts of the Reviews indexes.
  • Daniel James and Russel Winder reviewed the code that underpins the login processing.

  Thanks to everyone who have provided feedback or reported broken links. I appreciate the input.

• Announcing ACCU's New Website!
  12 September 2020

  ACCU has rolled out our new website!

  Four months in the making, and still very much a work in progress, the new website starts us on the path of moving away from our old host environment - Xaraya - to a more modern infrastructure - Hugo, Flask, and Python.

  Jim and I have worked hard to export ACCU's incredible catalogue of content (C Vu, Overload, reviews) from the old site to the new, with new page layouts and expanded indexing methods. In addition, we now have direct links to our conference video collections.

  The most recent updates to the website, the addition of C Vu 32.4, are present on both sites. Going forward, magazines and other new content will be posted only to the new website. All of the old material will continue to be accessable from the old website, so if something is missing in the new site, please go there.

  The conference website has been re-integrated with the main ACCU website. We will have new conference content as we progress towards ACCU 2021 in the spring.

  For now, membership information (and some other content) is still being maintained by the old website (now at https://members.accu.org), so if you want to create an account, modify, subscribe, or resubscribe to ACCU, please continue to use the old web site's interface. Rest assured your web team will continue to work to integrate membership maintenance into the new web site in the coming months.

  Log-ins on the new and old site are independent, so for those pages that require login, you will need to log in on the particular site you are visiting.

  Reporting Problems

  As with any large conversion, we anticipate that our members may encounter problems with the new site, or discover something missing. To report issues, please use the following links:

  • To report a broken link, click here. Please don't report broken links in article references, except for ACCU links; there is not much we can do about those.
  • To report a missing page, click here. Some older content, such as older news, won't be ported to the new site, but we want to know what you think is important.
  • To report problems logging in, click here.
  • To report a membership problem, click here.
  • To report a website outage, click here.
  • Got a comment, complaint, or idea for improvement? Click here.

  Also - in case you missed it - the Log Out button is at the bottom of the Members Only options at the bottom of each page.

• September's C Vu Journal has been published.
  9 September 2020

  The September 2020 ACCU C Vu journal has been published and should arrive at members' addresses in the next few days. C Vu 32-4 and previous issues of C Vu can be accessed via the Journals menu (ACCU members only).

• August's Overload Journal has been published.
  6 August 2020

  The August 2020 ACCU Overload journal has been published and should arrive at members' addresses in the next few days. Overload 158 and previous issues of Overload can be accessed via the Journals menu.

• Introducing ACCU Online - A Local Group With a Global Reach.
  5 August 2020

  

  ACCU London is proud to host an ACCU Online event - a rescheduling of Chris Oldwood's previously cancelled "A Test of Strength" talk.

  The event will be hosted virtually, on Remo. This will also give us the social and networking aspect of meet-ups that we miss from the in-person version.

  When: Wednesday, 12th August 2020, 19:00 start.

  Where: A link to the event will be sent to those who RSVP as attending nearer the time.

  To Attend: Please sign up on the ACCU London event page.

  Title: A Test of Strength

  Speaker: Chris Oldwood

  About the Talk:

  If there is one place that we find it easy to take shortcuts it's when writing tests. Whether we're under the cosh or have an overly-optimistic view of our ability to write self-documenting code, instead of creating tests that support the production code and development process we can find ourselves producing WTFs (Weak Test Functions). The net effect is often a vicious cycle that disparages, instead of encourages us.

  In the past I've tried many different ways to try and short-circuit the test writing process, but have only come-up short every time. This session takes a look at why skimping on elements of the test structure, such as organisation, naming and scope only leads to pain and hardship in the long run. Along the way we'll uncover the truth behind common folklore, such as only having one assertion per test.

  About the speaker:

  Chris is a freelance developer who started out as a bedroom coder in the 80 s writing assembler on 8-bit micros; these days it s C++ and C# in plush corporate offices. He writes the "Afterwood" back piece in Overload magazine and the "In The Toolbox" column for C Vu magazine. Chris also commentates on the Godmanchester duck race. He can be contacted via gort@cix.co.uk or @chrisoldwood.

C Vu Volume 32 · Issue 4 · September 2020

Contents

• Optimal
  Editorial.
• Making a Linux Desktop
  Alan Griffiths adds support for shell components to the desktop environment.
• Relish the Challenge
  Pete Goodliffe challenges us to pick up the gauntlet.
• Piping Software for Less
  Paul Grenyer continues his mission to build a DevOps pipeline on a budget.
• Jumping Around in Emacs
  Silas S. Brown shares a tip for navigating code.
• The Standards Report
  Guy Davidson talks about executors and their journey towards acceptance into the standard.
• Code Critique Competition 125
  Set and collated by Roger Orr. A book prize is awarded for the best entry.
• Further Comments on Code Critique 123
  Additional information has been sent in response to an earlier Code Critique Competition.
• Reviews
  The latest roundup of reviews.

The latest Overload is Overload 158. Further details of our journals are available here.