Funny

Java is also an island

(Sorry, small inside joke for German-speaking Java programmers)

Gherkin is the syntax, Cucumber is a specific implementation.

C is just a letter

It's the successor to B, which was derived from BCPL ("Basic Combined Programming Language")

Incidentally, C++ is a reference to how integer values are iterated in C. And then C# is a pithy take on C++ wherein you've stacked two rows of plus signs on top of each other.

There's often some rhyme or reason to these names.

Have always personally seen Gherkin being used with Cucumber, as I believe that they're two parts of the same whole, but I'm happy to be corrected if wrong :).

My understanding is that Gherkin is the syntax used to write the scenarios / acceptance criteria, whilst Cucumber is the tool that interprets said scenarios and executes them as automated tests.

Java is an island

There are only two hard things in Computer Science: cache invalidation and naming things

-- Phil Karlton

I wonder what A and B looked like XD

Something is better than nothing, but keep looking.

On that same page is Gherkin which is what both examples are. (I may have gotten the syntax slightly wrong.) Cucumber uses Gherkin. I forget which is which exactly. Maybe Cucumber is the code that reads Gherkin and executes step definitions.

For whatever reason, people try to make a small number of extremely flexible step definitions which leads to scenarios that don't actually read as business requirements. (Which is the entire point in the first place.)

Given a user has a bank accout
And the account has a balance of $10
When the user attempts to withdraw $20
Then the transaction should fail
And the account should have a balance of $20

Given a user has a bank accout
And the account has a balance of $10
When the user attempts to withdraw $5
Then the transaction should succeed
And the account should have a balance of $5

Given a user has a bank accout
And the account has a balance of $10
When the user attempts to deposit $5
Then the transaction should succeed
And the account should have a balance of $15

Doing something like this is more elegant. The steps definitions would be

• a user has a bank account performs setup tasks to load a test user into the system.
• the account has a balance of X would either load the account with that much or just make an initial deposit.
• the user attempts to withdraw X/the user attempts to deposit X would both perform those actions. If it's a web API they'd be HTTP requests.
• then the transaction should X would check HTTP status code. You could make this two separate step definitions or have logic based on the word. Two separate step definitions is probably better.
• the account should have a balance of X checks the balance in the account.

Ah. Yeah to be fair I've only used it on personal projects. I've never had to use it at work. Maybe I'd change my tune after that experience

Hey, i'm german. It's Gurke here.