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> Don't believe the myth that programmers can test their own code. They can't. Interesting take that I’m not sure I can agree with. Good programmers write good
by ed25519FUUU 6y ago
> Don't believe the myth that programmers can test their own code. They can't.
Interesting take that I’m not sure I can agree with. Good programmers write good tests because, well, that’s one of the things that makes a “good” programmer. If you take a dedicated test writer out of the picture you must still have a good program with good tests.
The whole “blind spot” conundrum posited by the author can simply be solved by having at least 2 people on a project. Each one will look at the code differently and write tests differently.
- egypturnash 6y agoI think the rest of the paragraph you’re reacting from goes into why he believes this, after a long career of writing video games: Programmers will test for all the conditions they can imagine, but a good tester will imagine many many more and players will try things programmers never even considered. Knowledge of their code is the achilles heel of programmers. I've had code I was 100% sure was rock solid, only to have one of our testers reduce me to tears. A good tester excels at poking your code in places you never considered. I'm not talking about your unit tested sort routine, I'm talking about complex puzzle logic and odd UI uses. It's the stuff unit tests will never catch, but a good tester will. Testers are the unsung heroes of your team, treat them very well.
- zzo38computer 6y agoProgrammers can partially test their own code, but may miss stuff, I think. Same probably applies to other testers too. Programmers should test their own code, but other people should probably also test it. (My own projects I pretty much write it by myself, and test it by myself. Although, I would like other people who are also interested to also test it, but currently it isn't.)