http://blog.itsallcode.org/Recent blog posts on Itsallcode BlogHugo (https://gohugo.io)en-usSat, 01 Aug 2026 00:00:00 Zhttp://blog.itsallcode.org/posts/2026/08/01/openfasttrace-4-7-0-released/Sat, 01 Aug 2026 00:00:00 Z OpenFastTrace 4.7.0, codenamed “Gherkin Importer”, is now available. This release introduces direct support for Gherkin .feature files as specification sources and enables requirement coverage within Markdown and reStructuredText (RST) comments. # Gherkin Specification Import The most significant addition in this release is the ability to import specification items directly from Gherkin .feature files. This allows teams using Behavior-Driven Development (BDD) to integrate their executable specifications directly into their traceability matrix.http://blog.itsallcode.org/posts/2026/08/01/openfasttrace-4-7-0-released/http://blog.itsallcode.org/posts/2026/07/19/openfasttrace-4-6-0-released/Sun, 19 Jul 2026 00:00:00 Z We are pleased to announce the release of OpenFastTrace 4.6.0, codenamed “Status Filter at Import”. This release introduces a highly requested filtering feature, improves the user interface of our reports, and expands our import capabilities. # Filtering Specification Items by Status A major new feature in this release is the ability to filter specification items by their status during the import process. Using the new -w or --wanted-statuses command-line parameters, you can now specify which statuses should be included in the trace.http://blog.itsallcode.org/posts/2026/07/19/openfasttrace-4-6-0-released/http://blog.itsallcode.org/posts/2026/06/10/openfasttrace-intellij-plugin-0-8-0/Wed, 10 Jun 2026 19:25:40 +0200 The OpenFastTrace IntelliJ Plugin 0.8.0 is out. While version 0.7.0 made OFT runs configurable, this release focuses on how you interact with the results. # Test Runner UI Integration The most significant change is that OpenFastTrace results now integrate directly with IntelliJ’s built-in Test Runner UI. Instead of scanning a text report, you get a structured tree of results. This integration provides several benefits: Visual Feedback: Results are grouped by source file, specification item, and trace link. Clean items show as passed, while defects appear as failures. Deep Inspection: You can expand source files to see affected items and inspect incoming/outgoing trace links as sub-tests. Contextual Information: Item IDs, link status, and defect explanations are visible in the test details. Easy Navigation: You can jump from result nodes directly to the source files, specification declarations, or coverage tags. The global Tools | OpenFastTrace | Trace Project action and new run configurations use this UI by default. If you prefer the raw report, you can still opt into the plain text output in the run configuration.http://blog.itsallcode.org/posts/2026/06/10/openfasttrace-intellij-plugin-0-8-0/http://blog.itsallcode.org/posts/2026/06/06/openfasttrace-4-5-0-released/Sat, 06 Jun 2026 00:00:00 Z We are pleased to announce the release of OpenFastTrace 4.5.0. This release is particularly special as it marks the 10th anniversary of OpenFastTrace on GitHub. # New Mastodon Presence As part of our community outreach, OpenFastTrace is now on Mastodon. You can follow us for updates and discussions at @OpenFastTrace@mastodon.social. # CLI Improvements The command-line interface has been improved with standard help options. You can now use -h or --help to display usage information. Additionally, the help message now includes the version of OpenFastTrace, making it easier to verify the environment you are running in.http://blog.itsallcode.org/posts/2026/06/06/openfasttrace-4-5-0-released/http://blog.itsallcode.org/posts/2026/05/30/10_years_of_openfasttrace/Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 Z 2026 marks a special milestone for OpenFastTrace: it has been a bit more than 10 years since the first commit was pushed to GitHub! While OFT as we know it today started in 2016, its roots go back much further. The journey began in 2003 with a tool called ‘ReqMgr’ at 3SOfT GmbH. Over the years, it evolved through various iterations—ReqMgrNG, ReqM2, and Allosaurus—driven by the needs of the automotive industry for reliable requirement tracing.http://blog.itsallcode.org/posts/2026/05/30/10_years_of_openfasttrace/http://blog.itsallcode.org/posts/2026/05/12/ide_integration_and_skills/Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 Z Two things happened recently that I think are worth mentioning: OFT got an IntelliJ plugin, and we added several skill files for AI coding agents. # The IntelliJ Plugin Running OFT during development should be as seamless as possible. While we have had build integration for a long time via our Maven and Gradle plugins, many developers still found themselves dropping to the command line to check tracing results. That is fine for a final check before a commit, but during active development, it can interrupt your flow.http://blog.itsallcode.org/posts/2026/05/12/ide_integration_and_skills/http://blog.itsallcode.org/posts/2026/02/07/packaging_oft_for_distributions/Sat, 07 Feb 2026 13:51:53 +0100 Our next goal is to get OFT packaged for easier installation. We will start with Debian and RPM packages soon. Ultimately, we would like to get OFT shipped with the popular distributions. This will probably help with the adoption. But until that happens, it will be a long way. By the way, if you read this and are a curious developer with experience in the Apple ecosystem, we are looking for help with packaging OFT for macOS. If you are interested, please reach out to us.http://blog.itsallcode.org/posts/2026/02/07/packaging_oft_for_distributions/http://blog.itsallcode.org/posts/2026/02/07/release_4.2.1/Sat, 07 Feb 2026 13:31:41 +0100 Everything that can go wrong will go wrong. — Ed Murphy (not really, the original quote was a bit different) # Release 4.2.2 (or the moment we found out 4.2.1 was not on Maven Central) Finally, we managed to get a new release of OFT out of the door. While 4.2.2 is only a bugfix and security release, it also inherits a new feature from 4.2.1. Why do I mention that?http://blog.itsallcode.org/posts/2026/02/07/release_4.2.1/http://blog.itsallcode.org/posts/2025/06/22/new_central_deployment/Sun, 22 Jun 2025 00:00:00 Z Although the feature set change for version 4.2.0 is not that big, that was the most painful release we had so far. # The Challenge of the new Maven Central Deployment To understand the rant that is about to follow, one must know that this year Sonatype changed the way releases are deployed to the Central repository (formerly known as Maven Central). Nothing wrong with doing that per se, since the old mechanism was quite clunky, and I imagine, also caused some trouble on Sonatype’s side. The announcement came around the end of 2024, and the deadline for the migration was the last of May 2025. So far so fair.http://blog.itsallcode.org/posts/2025/06/22/new_central_deployment/http://blog.itsallcode.org/posts/2025/03/31/iphone_linux_photo_sync/Mon, 31 Mar 2025 00:00:00 Z Emphraim Kishon always called his wife the “best wife of all of them”. We have that in common. What he probably did not have was one with an iPhone and a Linux laptop. She loves her adorable iPhone mini. But her current photo management software, Shotwell, was putting quite a damper on the photo-syncing operation. A sigh emerged from her one evening, “Can’t this be automatic?” Being a Linux nerd, and a good husband indeed, it was time to use some good old Unix philosophy, roll up the sleeves and get some Bash magic working.http://blog.itsallcode.org/posts/2025/03/31/iphone_linux_photo_sync/http://blog.itsallcode.org/posts/2025/01/01/proton_mail_aliases/Wed, 01 Jan 2025 17:30:29 +0100 We all know that everyone and his cat want our private data. Email addresses and phone numbers are among the most popular items the data grifters want. Personally, I like to know who gave away my mail addresses. Proton Mail has a nice feature that can make this happen. If you create an email address say xyz@example.net, you can add as many aliases as you like by simply adding +<alias> to the name part of the address. If you put in the name of the company that wanted your address, it’s easy to tell where the spam originates or who lost or sold your address.http://blog.itsallcode.org/posts/2025/01/01/proton_mail_aliases/http://blog.itsallcode.org/posts/2024/08/11/oft-plugins/Sun, 11 Aug 2024 10:30:00 +0200 We are very happy to announce a new feature for OpenFastTrace in version 4.1.0: You can now create and use third party plugins! Using plugins you can extend OFT with new imports and exports without modifying the core product. The very first plugin openfasttrace-asciidoc-plugin was contributed by @sophokles73 and is available in version 0.2.0. We also have good news for Maven users: It’s very easy to use OFT plugins with our openfasttrace-maven-plugin if they are published to a Maven repository, see the documentation for details. The latest version 2.1.0 contains OFT 4.1.0.http://blog.itsallcode.org/posts/2024/08/11/oft-plugins/http://blog.itsallcode.org/posts/2024/07/01/xen-functional-safety-update-slides/Mon, 01 Jul 2024 20:02:15 +0200 Michal Orzel and Ayan Kumar Halder from AMD published their presentation “Xen Functional Safety — Update” from the Xen Summit 2024. It’s an interesting read. They talk about how OpenFastTrace helps in their documentation process on slide 20.http://blog.itsallcode.org/posts/2024/07/01/xen-functional-safety-update-slides/http://blog.itsallcode.org/posts/2024/06/29/a-second-pair-of-eyes/Sat, 29 Jun 2024 13:53:22 +0200 Which developer does not know this situation: you debug like a mad person and form all sorts of crazy theories my the code in front of you does not work. Especially if you are new to a topic — like we are with our shiny new Hugo blog. When I created the blog, I intended to keep the directory structure identical to the old WordPress blog: <domain>/<year>/<month>/<day>/<post> All good and well, until I updated to a different theme, because the minimal theme by Calin Tataru that I originally chose — and which I still find stunningly beautiful in its clean simplicity — is apparently not maintained anymore. At least the last commit dates four years back.http://blog.itsallcode.org/posts/2024/06/29/a-second-pair-of-eyes/http://blog.itsallcode.org/posts/2024/06/25/openfasttrace-is-now-on-youtube/Tue, 25 Jun 2024 19:06:26 +0200 Itsallcode.org is on YouTube now! Check out our three-and-a-half minute quick-introduction to OpenFastTrace. If you have a little bit more time you can also watch the presentation we prepared for the Xen Summit. We also talk about rocket science. :-)http://blog.itsallcode.org/posts/2024/06/25/openfasttrace-is-now-on-youtube/http://blog.itsallcode.org/posts/2024/06/25/openfasttrace-4.0.0-released/Tue, 25 Jun 2024 18:36:01 +0200 Version 4.0.0 of OpenFastTrace marks an important milestone for us. We now have reStructuredText support, which is something that Python users have been waiting for quite a while now. For more awesome new features check out the release letter.http://blog.itsallcode.org/posts/2024/06/25/openfasttrace-4.0.0-released/http://blog.itsallcode.org/posts/2024/06/23/copy-as-markdown/Sun, 23 Jun 2024 20:00:23 +0200 If you ever have to selectively convert WordPress blog articles to a static web page, take a look at the Firefox extension “Copy as Markdown”. It’s a real time saver.http://blog.itsallcode.org/posts/2024/06/23/copy-as-markdown/http://blog.itsallcode.org/posts/2024/06/23/new-hugo-blog/Sun, 23 Jun 2024 14:58:47 +0200 Today I had a good opportunity to reflect on how I select software. Of course there are rational criteria like whether it is open source, has regular releases, gets good reviews and so on. But then there is also the matter of taste.http://blog.itsallcode.org/posts/2024/06/23/new-hugo-blog/http://blog.itsallcode.org/posts/2024/06/04/tracability-talk-at-the-xen-summit/Tue, 04 Jun 2024 19:59:27 +0200 Big shout out to our friend Ayan Kumar Halder, who held a talk with me on the Xen Summit. Ayan talked about traceability in the Xen functional safety project and I contributed a video explaining how OFT fits into the picture. Watch the recording of the talk on the Xen YouTube channel! Also, please check out the other FuSa talk Ayan held together with his colleague Michal Orzal.http://blog.itsallcode.org/posts/2024/06/04/tracability-talk-at-the-xen-summit/http://blog.itsallcode.org/posts/2020/11/08/initial-public-release-of-whiterabbit-time-recording/Sun, 08 Nov 2020 20:57:31 +0200 Need a tool for tracking your working time? Try WhiteRabbit! We just released version 1.0.0 on GitHub.http://blog.itsallcode.org/posts/2020/11/08/initial-public-release-of-whiterabbit-time-recording/http://blog.itsallcode.org/posts/2020/05/24/new-gradle-plugin-for-oft/Sun, 24 May 2020 20:56:01 +0200 It took a while, but now we finally released version 0.7.0 containing the Gradle plugin for OpenFastTrace 3.0.2. There were some issues that delayed the release: The configuration of plugins changed in Gradle 6.0. The old API is deprecated and will be removed in Gradle 7.0, so we had to migrate to the new API. Calculating the test coverage of Gradle plugin integration tests requires plugin jacoco-gradle-testkit-plugin. With new Gradle versions the test task fails under Windows with exception message Failed to create MD5 hash for file content. This is a known issue caused by a gradle background process locking the Jacoco coverage result file build/jacoco/test.exec. Fortunately there is a workaround described in the issue. Now Sonarcloud reports a test coverage of 90% for the plugin. The new Gradle plugin requires Java 11 and Gradle 6.0. We ensure compatibility with versions 6.0 and 6.4.1 with additional integration tests.http://blog.itsallcode.org/posts/2020/05/24/new-gradle-plugin-for-oft/http://blog.itsallcode.org/posts/2020/05/23/long-time-no-see/Sat, 23 May 2020 20:54:20 +0200 The previous blog post was published more than one year ago. That’s why it’s high time for an update. We where busy in the last weeks preparing some new releases for you! # OpenFastTrace 3.0.2 This major release contains these changes: The project now requires Java 11 for building and running. We re-structured the packages to have unique package names for each submodule. This is a precondition for Java 9 modules which we will introduce later. The tag importer now supports many more file types, e.g. for C, C++, SQL and many more. # OpenFastTrace Maven Plugin 0.1.0 This is the first release we recommend for production use as we added integration tests for real use cases. We upgraded to the latest OFT release and introduced a feature to optionally fail the build when tracing finds an error.http://blog.itsallcode.org/posts/2020/05/23/long-time-no-see/http://blog.itsallcode.org/posts/2019/04/14/new-project-structure-for-openfasttrace/Sun, 14 Apr 2019 20:53:01 +0200 We are happy to announce the latest release 2.3.5 of OpenFastTrace. In this release we split the source code into sub-modules for api, importers, exporters etc. This has some advantages: The dependencies of plugins are now enforced by the compiler. It is not possible that e.g. the specobject exporter depends on the specobject importer. Developers who want to extend OFT with custom importers or exporters only need add a dependency for the stable API module without all the other internal code. A stable API simplifies internal refactoring of the code because third party plugins only depend on the API module. All other modules are internal and can be changed without breaking third party plugins. I also should mention some caveats. Building the project now takes around 3 minutes, deployment to JCenter even 9 minutes.http://blog.itsallcode.org/posts/2019/04/14/new-project-structure-for-openfasttrace/http://blog.itsallcode.org/posts/2019/03/09/time-recording-tool/Sat, 09 Mar 2019 20:49:02 +0200 To keep track of my working time I wrote a little time recording tool called White Rabbit. You can find it at https://github.com/itsallcode/white-rabbit.http://blog.itsallcode.org/posts/2019/03/09/time-recording-tool/http://blog.itsallcode.org/posts/2018/12/19/slow-bash-auto-completion/Wed, 19 Dec 2018 20:47:08 +0200 Today I found a nice hint on a Cygwin forum on how to debug slow Bash auto-completion: set -vx What that does is that it make all the steps visible that the completion uses to come to a result. No you just have to look if one sticks out especially.http://blog.itsallcode.org/posts/2018/12/19/slow-bash-auto-completion/http://blog.itsallcode.org/posts/2018/12/15/maven-plugin-for-oft-created/Sat, 15 Dec 2018 20:44:05 +0200 Today we started a new project for creating a Maven plugin for OpenFastTrace. This will allow you to trace requirements not only with the command line and Gradle but also with Maven!http://blog.itsallcode.org/posts/2018/12/15/maven-plugin-for-oft-created/http://blog.itsallcode.org/posts/2018/12/12/gradle-plugin-supports-html-reports/Wed, 12 Dec 2018 20:40:59 +0200 Today we released version 0.6.0 of the Gradle plugin which includes OpenFastTrace 2.2.0 and supports HTML reports.http://blog.itsallcode.org/posts/2018/12/12/gradle-plugin-supports-html-reports/http://blog.itsallcode.org/posts/2018/12/08/openfasttrace-2-2-0-released/Sat, 08 Dec 2018 20:37:35 +0200 Today we released OpenFastTrace 2.2.0. As the main new feature the HTML report now shows a trace summary and a small table-of-contents. Additionally, we focused the README on GitHub on OFT users rather than developers and move the developer topics to the new developer guide.http://blog.itsallcode.org/posts/2018/12/08/openfasttrace-2-2-0-released/http://blog.itsallcode.org/posts/2018/11/25/recovering-jpgs-from-a-broken-file-system-on-a-flash-disk/Sun, 25 Nov 2018 20:36:13 +0200 Today I want to thank the author of recoverjpg, Samuel Tardieu. This tool is proof that “do one thing, do it well” results in the most useful software. A family member brought an SD card back from a vacation trip abroad and the filesystem broke when she plugged the card into her Mac. Needless to say that this is not the usual scenario, because many times before everything went well.http://blog.itsallcode.org/posts/2018/11/25/recovering-jpgs-from-a-broken-file-system-on-a-flash-disk/http://blog.itsallcode.org/posts/2018/11/24/gradle-plugin-upgraded-to-openfasttrace-2-1-0/Sat, 24 Nov 2018 20:33:37 +0200 After releasing OpenFastTrace 2.1.0 it was high time to release the corresponding Gradle plugin in version 0.5.0. This is a drop-in update, just update the version number and benefit from the features and bugfixes of OFT 2.1.0. During the release process we also fixed the sonar analysis and some sonar warnings. We also used the opportunity to document (and test) two features that where already implemented but not described: Import requirements from a maven repository This is useful for sharing requirements with other sub-projects. Publish requirements to a maven repository This is useful for tracing against requirements from a higher-level architecture document.http://blog.itsallcode.org/posts/2018/11/24/gradle-plugin-upgraded-to-openfasttrace-2-1-0/http://blog.itsallcode.org/posts/2018/11/22/openfasttrace-2-1-0-released/Thu, 22 Nov 2018 20:31:41 +0200 After two bugfix releases a new feature release. On November 19th Christoph create the Release for OpenFastTrace 2.1.0. Feature-wise we are happy to announce an improved HTML report. Sonar checks are now up and running again and the last JavaDoc errors have been rooted out. We also fixed the deep coverage detection which was pointing upwards instead of downwards in the tracing chain. As a consequence we had to rework link loop detection, which acts a lot smarter now than before.http://blog.itsallcode.org/posts/2018/11/22/openfasttrace-2-1-0-released/http://blog.itsallcode.org/posts/2018/10/31/openfasttrace-2-0-2-released/Wed, 31 Oct 2018 20:29:27 +0200 In a recent blog post I wrote about the migration from JUnit4 to JUnit5 as unit testing framework. Even though the version number increase from 2.0.1 to 2.0.2 might not look like much, it is in fact a major milestone for OpenFastTrace, since from here on writing tests will be faster and more efficient.http://blog.itsallcode.org/posts/2018/10/31/openfasttrace-2-0-2-released/http://blog.itsallcode.org/posts/2018/10/30/on-refactoring-an-hidden-technical-dept/Tue, 30 Oct 2018 20:26:53 +0200 Can you accumulate technical dept, even if you regularly clean up your sources meticulously? A short while ago I would have said that this is possible but unlikely. That was before I started taking on the migration of all of OpenFastTrace‘s unit tests from JUnit4 to JUnit5.http://blog.itsallcode.org/posts/2018/10/30/on-refactoring-an-hidden-technical-dept/http://blog.itsallcode.org/posts/2018/10/13/openfasttrace-2-0-0-released/Sat, 13 Oct 2018 20:23:59 +0200 This release is a big step forward. One new feature, a few small fixes and a lot of code improvements that gives us a much cleaner and more uniform API, better test coverage and lower overall complexity. But a new API also means we had to break backward compatibility to achieve something that the existing API would not allow since it had a separation of report and export mode: you can now reuse an import that already ran to create both reports and exports from it without redoing the import. This is a considerable speed-up (and we call the project OpenFastTrace for a reason). Runtime efficiency was and will always be one of our main design principles.http://blog.itsallcode.org/posts/2018/10/13/openfasttrace-2-0-0-released/http://blog.itsallcode.org/posts/2018/08/13/openfasttrace-grade-plugin-0-4-0-released/Sat, 13 Oct 2018 20:21:32 +0200 Today we released version 0.4.0 of the OpenFastTrace Gradle plugin. This is the first version that can be considered production ready. It was successfully integrated into a real life commercial project using the following features: Software architecture design (Swad) imported as a dependency from a maven repository Software detailed design (Swdd) written in MarkDown Coverage tags in code (long format) for item types src, utest and stest Filter requirements from Swad, Swdd and Code using a artifact type filter Filter Swad requirements relevant for the project using a tag filter Generate a tracing report in text format containing failure details Additionally, to the report we export the requirements in Specobject format that can be delivered to integration for creating an overall tracing report Only minor adaptions were required and OFT works in parallel to the proprietary tracing tool. It is just must faster! 😉http://blog.itsallcode.org/posts/2018/08/13/openfasttrace-grade-plugin-0-4-0-released/http://blog.itsallcode.org/posts/2018/07/18/speed-up-writing-oft-specifications-with-wikitext-templates-for-eclipse/Wed, 18 Jul 2018 20:19:36 +0200 Starting today we will provide a growing set of Eclipse templates to help speed-up writing OpenFastTrace specifications using the Eclipse IDE. Using these templates also has the nice side-effect of reducing the chance for errors when writing specifications. Find the templates here: https://github.com/itsallcode/openfasttrace-eclipse-templateshttp://blog.itsallcode.org/posts/2018/07/18/speed-up-writing-oft-specifications-with-wikitext-templates-for-eclipse/http://blog.itsallcode.org/posts/2018/07/07/publish-to-maven-central/Wed, 18 Jul 2018 20:09:30 +0200 We already publish openfasttrace to JCenter, see openfasttrace distribution. Using libraries from JCenter in a Gradle build only requires adding repositories { jcenter() } to your build.gradle. You can do the same with maven by adding the following to your pom.xml: <repositories> <repository> <id>central</id> <name>bintray</name> <url>http://jcenter.bintray.com</url> </repository> </repositories> But we want to make it even easier for maven users by publishing our artifacts to the Maven Central repository which maven uses by default.http://blog.itsallcode.org/posts/2018/07/07/publish-to-maven-central/http://blog.itsallcode.org/posts/2018/07/14/openfasttrace-1-1-0-released/Sat, 14 Jul 2018 20:17:27 +0200 Today Christoph and me released version 1.1.0 of OpenFastTrace. The most notable feature addition is that you now can opt to keep specification items without tags when configuring the tag filter.http://blog.itsallcode.org/posts/2018/07/14/openfasttrace-1-1-0-released/http://blog.itsallcode.org/posts/2018/07/14/improving-test-coverage-in-log-message/Sat, 14 Jul 2018 20:15:00 +0200 Log message test coverage for the java.util.logging.Logger depends on the log level by default. As an optimization the lambda functions that constitute log messages are only executed if the configured log level is higher or equal the log message level. In effect this means that for optimum test coverage you would have to set the log level to FINEST for your unit tests. But that will spam your console or log files.http://blog.itsallcode.org/posts/2018/07/14/improving-test-coverage-in-log-message/http://blog.itsallcode.org/posts/2018/07/11/release-letters-useful-for-users-but-a-coupling-nightmare-for-developers/Wed, 11 Jul 2018 20:13:42 +0200 Release letters are useful. No doubt about that. They are the go-to place for users who want to know what’s new in a software release. Granted that information is already available in your projects ticket system, but you can’t expect your users to dig through tickets just to be up-to-date. So you duplicate information. Which is unsatisfying because it creates coupling: You copy information from the features and bug fixes from the tickets You add links to the ticket system You copy the version number and you should not forget to enter the right release date shortly before you release In some of our commercial projects we had this process automated to a high degree. The only thing really missing was translating the tech talk from the tickets into short descriptions that are helpful for your users.http://blog.itsallcode.org/posts/2018/07/11/release-letters-useful-for-users-but-a-coupling-nightmare-for-developers/http://blog.itsallcode.org/posts/2018/07/06/named-vs-numeric-requirement-ids/Fri, 06 Jul 2018 20:02:12 +0200 With every new project there will be a discussion whether requirement IDs should have a unique name or simply a numbering scheme.http://blog.itsallcode.org/posts/2018/07/06/named-vs-numeric-requirement-ids/http://blog.itsallcode.org/posts/2018/07/03/oft-specfications-as-pdf/Tue, 03 Jul 2018 19:46:42 +0200 PDFs are a fixed-size document format, which means that they made more sense in the days when PCs all had about the same video resolutions and screen geometries. But even then, they were never perfect for displaying them on a screen because most are in portrait mode and monitors rarely were. Nowadays, displays especially in mobile devices come in all shapes and sizes, so fixed-size formats are even more obsolete.http://blog.itsallcode.org/posts/2018/07/03/oft-specfications-as-pdf/http://blog.itsallcode.org/posts/2018/07/02/and-this-is-why-we-cant-have-nice-things/Mon, 02 Jul 2018 19:41:57 +0200 The option to allow anyone to register to your WordPress blog is basically useless and should be removed. The reason why I am saying this is that once the automated spambots find your blog, they start registering users in the hopes of using your blog as a spam distribution platform. You can use CAPTCHAs as a gatekeeper to your registration dialogs. But the fact alone that this is necessary angers me. Just because a bunch of rightfully underpaid software engineering dropouts thinks it is a good idea to support the spam industry, the rest of us have a harder and harder time using the Internet for something useful.http://blog.itsallcode.org/posts/2018/07/02/and-this-is-why-we-cant-have-nice-things/http://blog.itsallcode.org/posts/2018/07/01/almost-impressive/Sun, 01 Jul 2018 19:31:43 +0200 Considering the fact that I just set up this blog today I am impressed (but not in a good way) how fast the spambots found it. First comment we got was — what else should it be — spam.http://blog.itsallcode.org/posts/2018/07/01/almost-impressive/http://blog.itsallcode.org/posts/2018/07/01/dating-back-wordpress-blog-posts/Sun, 01 Jul 2018 19:30:28 +0200 Sometimes I collect material for a blog post in a file but then forget to publish it. Thankfully WordPress lets you backdate posts. I found three old blog posts that I wrote for the static blog which I never published. Since they fit nicely with the topics here I published them under the date when I originally wrote them.http://blog.itsallcode.org/posts/2018/07/01/dating-back-wordpress-blog-posts/http://blog.itsallcode.org/posts/2018/07/01/releasing-to-maven-central/Sun, 01 Jul 2018 16:38:06 +0200 While we already published releases on JCenter, we are now in the process of getting OpenFastTrace published on Maven Central. The goal is of course to make using OFT as convenient as possible for everyone. I am happy to see that the people from Maven Central take security seriously and do not just let anyone publish modules under any package name. They asked us to prove that we own the domain “itsallcode.org”, so that gave me the necessary kick in the butt to speed up my plan to set up a web presence for OFT outside of Github on our domain. This blog is the first part.http://blog.itsallcode.org/posts/2018/07/01/releasing-to-maven-central/http://blog.itsallcode.org/posts/2018/06/30/openfasttrace-1.0.0/Sat, 30 Jun 2018 16:35:13 +0200 Today we released OpenFastTrace 1.0.0 Or criteria for this major release were Importers for Markdown, ReqM2, Tag format and Legacy-Tag format Exporter for ReqM2 Full featured plain text report Basic tag filter and artifact type filter User guide Contribution guideline Time to celebrate!http://blog.itsallcode.org/posts/2018/06/30/openfasttrace-1.0.0/http://blog.itsallcode.org/posts/2017/05/14/samsung-printer-security/Fri, 14 Jul 2017 15:51:12 +0200 Not much time today, so just a list of “features” I’ve discovered on my shiny new Samsung M2825 printer.http://blog.itsallcode.org/posts/2017/05/14/samsung-printer-security/http://blog.itsallcode.org/posts/2017/05/07/intrusive-sharing/Sun, 07 May 2017 15:34:46 +0200 Good software tries not to surprise the user. Today I was surprised that four of the integration tests in OpenFastTrace (OFT) failed, although I did not touch the code. The failure reason given was a character encoding problem. Since I was quite sure that the problem did not occur last time I ran the test and I did not touch the code since, I knew the reason was not in our code.http://blog.itsallcode.org/posts/2017/05/07/intrusive-sharing/http://blog.itsallcode.org/posts/2017/01/24/test-coverage-pitfalls/Tue, 24 Jan 2017 15:29:02 +0200 When did I test enough? While code coverage is a good indicator, you still have to know how code coverage works. Today I was hunting a bug in a Markdown importer I wrote for OpenFastTrace. The class where the bug sits had a whooping 93.1% code coverage and part of that missing coverage was owed to the fact that the JaCoCo coverage tracer can’t mark code that throws exceptions as covered – even though there is a test case for it.http://blog.itsallcode.org/posts/2017/01/24/test-coverage-pitfalls/http://blog.itsallcode.org/posts/2019/01/14/test-coverage-pitfalls/Sat, 14 Jan 2017 15:29:02 +0200 When did I test enough? While code coverage is a good indicator, you still have to know how code coverage works. Today I was hunting a bug in a Markdown importer I wrote for OpenFastTrace. The class where the bug sits had a whooping 93.1% code coverage and part of that missing coverage was owed to the fact that the JaCoCo coverage tracer can’t mark code that throws exceptions as covered – even though there is a test case for it.http://blog.itsallcode.org/posts/2019/01/14/test-coverage-pitfalls/http://blog.itsallcode.org/pages/about/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 Z itsallcode.org — as the name suggests — is a group of software enthusiasts with a special fondness for treating everything as code. From actual programs over infrastructure to builds and documentation. We are the authors of the requirement tracing suite OpenFastTrace. This platform independent software can trace requirements from your specifications all the way down to your implementation, tests and handbooks. Visit us on GitHub.http://blog.itsallcode.org/pages/about/