Thanks for your useful comments – I’ll definitely be considering many of the tools you mentioned for the second edition. Your point on distributed version control systems is very valid, and it is an area I am keen to research further. There are also plenty more testing tools out there, such as the excellent easyb, which are on the list for the next edition.

Your comments on the CI tools are interesting, and reflect how fast this market has been moving over the last few years. When the book was planned, Hudson wasn’t even on the radar (it was included right at the end of the writing phase)! You are right in implying that Hudson has now pretty much taken an undisputed lead in the O/S CI servers.

Concerning commercial tools, my decision to exclude them was primarily one of scope, and also of existing documentation – most commercial tools already have decent documentation, which is not always the case with O/S tools. In future editions, however, you can expect to see references to JIRA and some of the other commercial tools of this type.

Cheers,

John Smart.