“A Smattering of Selenium #87” was a Selenium community link roundup published by Adam Goucher on June 14, 2012—not a Selenium release announcement. Its subtitle was “Avoiding punching things about software packaging by doing the 4th!!!!” The post collected ten links on testing, browser automation, mobile apps, and development infrastructure.
What the 2012 roundup covered
The post’s ten short items ranged well beyond Selenium itself. The descriptions below reflect how the roundup presented the links in 2012; they do not establish the linked projects’ current status.
- Python decorators: An attempt to learn the decorator pattern.
- Lawnchair: Described as both an outdoor couch and a persistence solution for HTML5 apps. The post cautioned that checking persistent apps in a browser was not enough.
- Soke: An Atlassian WebDriver performance tool incorporating Page Objects—the roundup’s clearest connection between Selenium-style browser automation and performance testing.
- Vendor-prefixed CSS: A discussion of whether test scripts should fail on vendor-prefixed CSS, linked to the W3C article “How to Unprefix -Webkit-Device-Pixel-Ratio.”
- Android unit tests: A link about Android unit testing, ending with a humorous LOLcat reference.
- Large-scale tests: An item on making large-scale tests practical and fast.
- Continuous deployment: A link presenting continuous deployment as a response to burnout.
- Python repository structure: Opinions on organizing Python repositories.
- Skewer: A Puppet-based cloud-node provisioning tool, with Chef and CfEngine named as alternatives.
- Calabash-Android: An evolving approach to driving Android apps.
Why the WebDriver item stands out
Soke placed WebDriver in a performance-testing context, and the roundup specifically noted its use of Page Objects. That makes it a useful historical snapshot of how browser automation concepts could be applied outside ordinary functional checks. It is not evidence that soke remains available or that the 2012 approach reflects current performance-testing practice.
The broader themes: testing, apps, and infrastructure
Taken together, the links grouped into several concerns familiar to software teams: making large test suites workable, deciding how tests respond to browser-specific CSS, testing Android applications, and managing cloud infrastructure. Lawnchair added a reminder that a web app’s persistent state can require checks beyond simply loading a page in a browser.
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The roundup was a collection of pointers rather than a unified tutorial: it did not provide a single workflow, code sample, or release roadmap. Selenium’s Smattering tag archive places #87 in a numbered series of these link roundups.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Who wrote “A Smattering of Selenium #87,” and when?
Adam Goucher published it on June 14, 2012.
Was Selenium #87 a Selenium version announcement?
No. It was a community link roundup, not a release announcement.
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