differences between 2 JUnit Assert classes

The JUnit framework contains 2 Assert classes (in different packages, obviously) and the methods on each appear to be very similar. Can anybody explain why this is?

The classes I'm referring to are: junit.framework.Assert and org.junit.Assert.

The old method (of JUnit 3) was to mark the test-classes by extending junit.framework.TestCase. That inherited junit.framework.Assert itself and your test class gained the ability to call the assert methods this way.

Since version 4 of JUnit, the framework uses Annotations for marking tests. So you no longer need to extend TestCase. But that means, the assert methods aren't available. But you can make a static import of the new Assert class. That's why all the assert methods in the new class are static methods. So you can import it this way:

import static org.junit.Assert.*;

After this static import, you can use this methods without prefix.

At the redesign they also moved to the new package org.junit that follows better the normal conventions for package naming.

JUnit 3.X: junit.framework.Assert

JUnit 4.X: org.junit.Assert

Prefer the newest one, especially when running JDK5 and higher with annotation support.

There is in fact a functional change: org.junit.Assert will complain if you use the two-argument assertEquals() with float or double, while junit.framework.Assert will silently autobox it.

I believe they are refactoring from junit.framework to org.junit and junit.framework.Assert is maintained for backwards compatibility.