“A Smattering of Selenium #63” is an archival Selenium community roundup by Adam Goucher, published October 3, 2011. It is not a current Selenium release announcement: it collects links and brief comments about the WebDriver ecosystem, test automation, Selenium IDE, and whether testers should program.
What is “A Smattering of Selenium #63”?
It is a short link roundup on the official Selenium blog. Its subheading reads “Watir to WebDriver: Unit Test Frameworks – Well, its ‘big’ news.” The post highlights topics from the automation community of its time rather than offering a systematic evaluation of tools. Read the original Selenium post.
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What the roundup covered
In the post’s sequence, the selected links and asides trace several strands of browser and application testing:
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Repair common Windows errors and clear accumulated junk for a smoother, more stable PC - no reinstall needed.Free scan · no reinstall- Watir and WebDriver: Goucher notes that Watir can use WebDriver and questions whether Watir or Selenium scripts are properly described as unit tests.
- Selenium tests for Jenkins: The post points to a set of Selenium scripts and invites readers to fork, modify, and submit pull requests.
- Thucydides: It describes the framework as full-featured and built around WebDriver.
- NativeDriver and iOS: “NativeDriver and iOS: First Impressions” is presented as a likely first installment on mobile-app automation.
- Selenium IDE locator builders: “Managing Locator Builders in Selenium IDE” introduces a feature in a recent version, while the post remarks that it still needed polish.
- Python exception handling: One linked item cautions against bare
except:clauses and argues for allowing exceptions to surface during automation. - Mozmill and Selenium IDE: “Adding Mozmill tests to the Selenium IDE build system” covers adding those tests; Goucher notes that many IDE plugins could be tested only through Mozmill.
- Installing Selenium on Ubuntu: Another link asks for Selenium to be added to the Ubuntu Software Center.
- Programming and testing: The roundup links arguments both for and against testers learning to program. Goucher’s closing view is that automation is programming.
What the post tells us—and what it does not
The through-line is the WebDriver-era automation ecosystem: frameworks, CI testing, mobile automation, IDE tooling, and test-development practice. The post is useful as a snapshot of what one Selenium community roundup considered worth sharing in 2011. Its short descriptions are the author’s framing of linked articles, not independent verification of those articles’ technical claims.
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Its historical references should not be treated as present-day recommendations. The roundup does not establish the current maintenance, compatibility, platform support, or suitability of Watir, Thucydides, NativeDriver, Mozmill, Jenkins integrations, or Selenium IDE features. Check current project documentation before choosing or adopting any of them.
The T-shirt aside is a joke, not a tool recommendation
The post also links to a “Keep Calm and Continue Testing” T-shirt. It is a humorous aside, not a Selenium accessory, software recommendation, or substantive part of the roundup’s technical discussion.
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