A Smattering of Selenium #66 is a historical link roundup by Adam Goucher, published on the official Selenium blog on October 19, 2011. It is not a Selenium release announcement or a current how-to. The issue gathers brief commentary and links about testing practices, WebDriver, Ruby, and related web-development topics.
What the post is—and what “#66” means
The number 66 identifies the installment in the A Smattering of Selenium series; it is not a statistic. The Selenium archive places the post among the series’ 2011 entries. The page retains the original post and notes a directory rename last modified on August 7, 2021. Read the archived post.
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Goucher’s introduction is personal and joking before the post turns to its central format: a selection of links with short observations. The links are a snapshot of software-testing discussion in 2011, not endorsements that the material remains maintained or compatible with today’s tools.
Topics collected in issue 66
- Visual comparison and responsive images: The roundup points to material on image or bitmap comparisons and Adaptive Images.
- Selenium with JavaScript and Cucumber: It links to discussion of handling JavaScript confirmation dialogs from Selenium in Cucumber.
- WebDriver waits: One item concerns replacing Selenium’s older
waitForConditionapproach withWebDriverWait. - Python browser automation: The post describes Splinter as a wrapper around Python WebDriver bindings.
- Testing style and integration: It includes mockist test-driven development and an RSpec, Capybara, and Selenium integration-testing example.
- Other development links: The collection also touches on commit visualization, Google Webmaster material, Ruby concurrency and the GIL, and a response in a discussion about Facebook, Watir, and testing.
These descriptions report what the 2011 roundup linked to; they do not independently establish the linked resources’ present availability, accuracy, or suitability for a current project.
#1 Best Overall
The post’s historical distinction between functional and visual checks
Goucher argued that Selenium was suited to checking interaction, structure, and content, while deciding whether a page looked as a human intended called for human judgment. He summarized that view: “Robots where robots should be used. Humans where humans should be used.” This is his editorial framing from 2011, not a current Selenium specification or a claim that automated visual-regression testing is impossible.
For a present-day test strategy, the distinction is useful as a reminder to identify what a test is meant to establish: interface behavior and content are observable assertions, while subjective design intent may still need human review. The roundup itself does not compare current visual-testing methods or establish their capabilities.
Rank #2
Integration tests and the black-box principle
In an excerpt from a linked integration-testing article, the roundup quotes: “Integration tests can be brittle if they know too much about how those components work.” The excerpt recommends treating the application as a black box: observe and interact with its interface, rather than coupling tests to internal implementation details. The sentence is quoted by Goucher’s post; the roundup does not identify its original author in the excerpt.
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How to use the links today
Because the resources and examples date from 2011, treat them as historical context rather than drop-in instructions. Before applying one, verify that the original page is accessible, check current API names and browser support, and confirm that any library or integration is still maintained and compatible with your stack. The roundup contains no named statistical finding and does not establish the current status of each linked resource.
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