14 DAY TRIAL // Spec Explorer has certainly evolved to keep up the pace with Visual Studio, and developers have been able to leverage a version of the solution together with VS2010 as early as February 2010. But since that point, Microsoft has continued to introduce changes to Spec Explorer 2010, including the transition under the Visual Studio Power Tool category in the fall of this year.
Fact is that Spec Explorer 2010 Release 3.1 offered earlier this year has been obsolete since the release of v3.2, and v3.3 is currently available to developers as a Power Tool in Visual Studio Gallery.
Still, the tool’s page on the Microsoft Download Center was updated this week, illustrating the continued work that has been poured into this project.
Having been migrated from DevLabs to the Visual Studio Gallery the Power Tool continues to be focused on allowing developers to extend Visual Studio 2010 with modeling testing capabilities.
According to the official description of Spec Explorer 2010, the Power Tool extends Visual Studio 2010 “for modeling software behavior, analyzing that behavior by graphical visualization, model checking, and generating standalone test code from models.”
Spec Explorer 2010 3.3 continues to run only on Visual Studio 2010 Professional Edition and above, and the latest release dating back to September brings a range of bug fixes as well as new features, including:
“•On-The-Fly (OTF) testing: On-The-Fly testing provides a new means to use Spec Explorer to create and run tests directly from models (machines). In On-The-Fly testing, the selection and evaluation of model actions (including events) is alternated with execution by the System Under Test/adapter.
•Visual state search: This new feature in the Spec Explorer view enables the search for and highlighting of specific states.
•Probe logging: Newly provided recording of probe values in states enhances analysis of test logs.
•Test method customization: New control of test attributes in generated test code offers expanded support for other test frameworks in addition to the default one provided by Visual Studio.”
Spec Explorer 2010 for Model-Based Testing in Visual Studio 2010 is available for download here.
Visual Studio 2010 Premium is available for download here.
Visual Studio 2010 Professional is available for download here.
Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate is available for download here.
Visual Studio Test Professional 2010 is available for download here.