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TDD doesn't think for you, it merely validates your own existing understanding/mental model and forces you to come up with it upfront. This is hardly a thing to
by pmarreck 8y ago
TDD doesn't think for you, it merely validates your own existing understanding/mental model and forces you to come up with it upfront. This is hardly a thing to be mistrustful about, unless you work with idiots.
- bryanrasmussen 8y agook but from reading a lot of the comments on HN it sounds like many posters here think that they do work with idiots.
- pmarreck 8y agoTouché!
- YeGoblynQueenne 8y agoThose idiots probably also think the same, though.
- setr 8y agoIf everyone’s an idiot tbinking they’re surrounded by idiots, then TDD has no hope to ever succeed !
- danmaz74 8y ago> TDD doesn't think for you I totally agree, but I met several programmers who think the opposite.
- mannykannot 8y agoYou are right about that, but having code that passes a given test suite doesn't say anything about its secondary qualities, such as whether it can be understood. In theory, a failing test could improve your understanding of the situation, allowing you to refactor your initial pass at a solution, but I would bet that on this particular code base, the comprehension-raising doesn't go far enough, in most cases, for this to be feasible.
- Huggernaut 8y agoThat seems orthogonal to testing though. Implementation code can be hard to understand with or without a test suite, at least with test, as you point out, you may be able to understand the behaviour at some higher abstraction.