From: Kyle Schmitt <kyleaschmitt@...>
Date: 2008-04-24T01:49:47+09:00
Subject: Re: Ruby WATIR

I'm not for hire (Linux sysadmin now), but I've got experience as a
test-developer working with watir, so I can answer some stuff.

1) It's not at all related to ruby on rails.  It's a windows* specific
library that automates IE, and does so in some really awesome ways.
The big upside of this is that you can be confident your test hits
button A, it follows the same (possibly bug-ridden) code-path as user
when they hit button A.

2) Look for test developers, you need someone who knows testing, and
can do some coding.  They don't really need to know ruby or watir
going in, it's not hard to get up to speed on.  If they don't know
ruby already, just make sure they know how to program in _more_ than
one language: For some reason, monoglot** programmers have a harder
time learning new languages, especially on the job. It was my first
introduction to ruby actually, and it was a heck of a lot easier
learning ruby + watir together than it was learning how to deal with
TestComplete's specific vbscript/.net automation package, which I also
had to do, but thankfully not at the same time.


Good luck.
--Kyle


* Someday, somehow, it will finally be released in a cross
browser/cross platform fashion.  Have faith in Bret, he's very active
in the project AFAIK, and he may just beat me to posting a response.

** A monoglot is a person who speaks only one language.  I think we
all remember learning our second programing language, and that it
wasn't easy at the get-go, because it wasn't the same.  It's just one
of those things.