[LRUG] TDD (was: Ruby Contracting)

Stephen Bartholomew steve at curve21.com
Thu Feb 19 02:39:59 PST 2009


>I often find the challenge in writing such tests
>to be greater than the challenge of developing the application itselfThis
applies to testing in general.  Testing is just as much an art as coding is.


With TDD, the idea is that thinking about the tests and specifying what
you're about to code forces you to consider your design.  When a test seems
impossible to write for the code you're about to implement, it often means
that you need to break the problem down further or split things out.

I don't think anyone suggests that TDD is some kind of holy grail and that
automated testing means you don't have to worry about anything.  However,
automated tests *do* cover a good percentage of logic and for me personally,
TDD helps when designing code & interfaces.

Steve

On Thu, Feb 19, 2009 at 10:27 AM, Paul Carey <paul.p.carey at gmail.com> wrote:

> > Without taking sides, what surprises me is how few people say anything
> about
> > just how hard it is to write useful, robust, intelligible, non-brittle
> tests
> > (especially for e.g. Rails applications) and how much time it takes to
> > create and maintain them.
>
> Couldn't agree more. I often find the challenge in writing such tests
> to be greater than the challenge of developing the application itself.
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