Microsoft has announced it is open-sourcing its unit test execution infrastructure: the VSTest platform. The framework is designed to run tests, collect diagnostic data, and report the results. It provides the ability to run different test frameworks, provides code coverage, includes test impact analysis, and more, according to Microsoft.

In addition, it can parallelize across cores, uses process isolation, and integrates with Visual Studio. “If you use unit testing in VS, there’s a good chance you use this infrastructure already,” wrote Brian Harry, vice president for cloud developer services at Microsoft, in a blog post. “If you are using the unit testing capabilities that have been delivered in the .NET Core previews, you are also using it. Now it is open source so you can see how it works and, ultimately, contribute to it. We have not yet opened up the project for contributions, but we will.”

Qt 5.8 now available
The Qt company announced version 5.8 of its framework for cross-platform development. The latest release includes Qt Creator 4.2.1, updates to Qt for Device Creation, and a large set of new functionality.

Key features include enhancements to Qt Lite, support for the Qt Wayland Compositor, APIs for device bus communications and protocols, improvements to Qt QML and Qt Quick, updates to QtWebEngine, and new technology previews.

In addition, the Qt team made enhancements to the overall codebase to make use of new features from C++ 11.

More information is available here.

Researchers use heartbeats as encryption
Researchers from Binghamton University said the answer to protecting personal electronic medical records lies within the patient. The researchers have come up with a way to use heart’s electrical pattern as an encryption key.

According to the researchers, traditional methods can be too expensive or time-consuming. By using a patient’s unique electrocardiograph through a biosensor, they believe they can offer a simple, safe and cost-effective way to protecting their data.

More information is available here.

Tricentis raises $165 million for Continuous Testing
Continuous Testing company Tricentis has announced a US$165 million round of funding in order to improve and scale its technology. Tricentis aims to give users the tools they need to easily automate testing, control business risks and keep up with the speed of DevOps.

“Today’s predominantly manual software testing processes fail to meet the needs of today’s agile and DevOps initiatives, which require highly accelerated development cycles and, at the same time, a strict accounting for the business risks associated with rapid, iterative code changes,” said Sandeep Johri, CEO of Tricentis. “Applications drive corporate growth, and Continuous Testing has been identified as the linchpin to achieve agility and ultimately competitive differentiation.”