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Why not both? Are the two concepts somehow incompatible? A REPL is a (very) powerful tool for testing, probing, inspecting (etc) code; but it is only one tool
by mtrower 5y ago
Why not both? Are the two concepts somehow incompatible?
A REPL is a (very) powerful tool for testing, probing, inspecting (etc) code; but it is only one tool. It should be a part of your IDE (if you go for such things), not replace it.
- mbrodersen 5y agoWouldn't it make more sense to automate the tests instead of doing it manually? I have 9000+ auto tests for the large complex C++ code base I am currently maintaining. And the result is zero customer production bugs in the last 5+ years. And I routinely refactor and rewrite large parts of the code without worrying about it.
- mtrower 5y agoYes, automated test suites are great! I don’t know that they need all the things some people stuff into them, but the idea is a useful one. If you take my comment in the context of REPL-driven development, it’s going to seem tangential at best. But you mentioned that you prefer IDEs over REPLs; I’m merely suggesting that the two need not be exclusive. Unless you’re advocating for TDD, in a strict sense?