Frequently Asked Questions

Will csUnit become obsolete because of VS.NET 2005?
How does csUnit compare to XYZ? How is csUnit better than XZY? (XYZ being a different tool)
Why don't you join forces with XYZ?
Running tests report FileLoadException after csunit upgrade. How can I solve this?
How can I automatically load an assembly upon startup of csunitRunner?
After installing csunit version 1.4 I get a stack overflow error. How can I solve this?
The csUnitRunner command has disappeared from the "Tools" menu in Visual Studio. Reinstallation does not fix the problem. What should I do?
When I release a software that uses csUnit for tests, does the program I write has to be GPL as well?

QWill csUnit become obsolete because of VS.NET 2005?

ANo. Instead, as there are different versions of VS.NET 2005, there are still versions, which do not including unit testing. Buying a version that includes unit testing is not feasable for many users in particular on open source projects, because of the high licensing costs of the respective VS.NET versions.

We are currently working on migrating csUnit onto VS.NET 2005 and have planned a first version for end of March 2006.

Also, there is users who don't have VS.NET 2005 at all, but use other development tools instead.

And finally, csUnit will continue to contribute to the further development of testing tools targeting the .NET framework.

QHow does csUnit compare to XYZ? How is csUnit better than XYZ? (XYZ being a different tool)

AcsUnit and XYZ offer different sets of features. Depending on your requirements and based upon your selection criteria, csUnit or XYZ may be the better fit. It is your decision!

For example: csUnit's feature to collect time statistics can be seen as a huge benefit, when you need a painless way of finding out, how to improve the test cycle. However, one could also argue that this feature is unnecessary. Our stance here is: It depends on your individual perspective, values, and requirements, whether or not a particular feature is an advantage or a disadvantage.

Finally, while we certainly have a look on other tools once in a while, in principal, we do not talk in public about our findings. We believe that it would not comply with our thinking about ethics and morale, if we would talk about the results of our assessments. We are convinced that csUnit offers a lot of value to the user. Therefore there is no need, and there is no motivation, and it is not in line with our philosophy, that we point to or talk about the weaknesses of competing offers.

As a service for users who want to migrate to csUnit, we provide a tutorial "Migrating from NUnit to csUnit", which describes the necessary migration steps.

QWhy don't you join forces with XYZ?

AcsUnit and XYZ offer different sets of features. Therefore both tools address the requirements of a different set of users. Depending on these requirements, csUnit might be the better fit.

Also, as we use csUnit for our own projects, we need changes or new features in the short term. And we have experienced that users of csUnit appreciate that there is usually one new release per month with additional value. Tools that release only once or twice a year are not a good choice for an agile environment.

Apart from that: Having a choice is not a bad thing! Or is it?

QAfter upgrading to the latest version of csUnit, after having loaded the assembly, csUnit displays the following error message (FileLoadException), when I click "Run":

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What is the reason? How can I solve it?

AThe most-likely reason for this error is, that the assembly you are loading references the csUnit assembly (csUnit.dll). In addition, the csUnit-version that your assembly has been built with, is different than the version which is currently installed on your system. Therefore, if csUnit loads the assembly, it cannot locate the old csUnit version.

The solution is to recompile the assembly which you want to load into csUnit. This way it changes the reference to the installed csUnit version and then tries to locate that one.

QHow can I automatically load an assembly after starting up csUnitRunner?

ASpecify the assembly at the command line according to the following syntax:

csUnitRunner.exe /assembly:<assemblyPathName>

where <assemblyPathName> includes the absolute or relative path to the assembly containing the classes with the tests.

Examples:

csUnitRunner.exe /assembly:c:\projects\csUnit\example\bin\debug\example.dll

csUnitRunner.exe /assembly:..\..\bin\debug\example.dll

After startup csUnitRunner also retrieves all test classes and methods from the assembly and displays them in the test hierarchy tree.

QAfter installing csUnit version 1.4 I get a stack overflow error. How can I solve this?

AThe stack overflow error is caused by a recursion in Assert.assertFalse( ... ). To solve this, you can either use Assert.AssertFalse(...) (Note the upper case 'A') or you can download and install version 1.4.1, which solves the issue.

QThe csUnitRunner command has disappeared from the "Tools" menu in Visual Studio. Reinstallation does not fix the problem. What should I do?

APerform the following steps:

Close all instances of Visual Studio. Consult the task manager - process tab in order to verify that no devenv.exe is running.
At the command prompt navigate to the "common7\IDE" subdirectory of your Visual Studio installation.
Enter "devev /setup" at the command prompt and press return. Devenv.exe runs for a while but does not launch Visual Studio. This is by design.
Run the csUnit installation again (open MSI-file). If it offers you to repair the installation, this is fine as well.

The csUnitRunner command should now be available from the tools menu again.

QWhen I release a software that uses csUnit for tests, does the program I write has to be GPL as well?

AYes or no, depending on which version of csUnit you are using.

Yes, if you use a version up to version 1.9.*, and if your software references csUnit libraries, assemblies, or source code.

No, if you use csUnit 2.0.* or later. Starting with version 2.0.* we have changed the licensing model. The new licensing model uses the zlib/libpng license and is substantially more flexible. It allows you to ship csUnit or portions of it as part of commercial, closed-source products as well. Even if your software references csUnit assemblies you could ship your software under whatever licensing model you prefer, including commercial, closed-source software.

Please keep in mind, though, that we are no lawyers. To be on the safe side, we recommend to ask your lawyer for further assistant should you have any open questions.

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