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The main philosophy of XP, as stated by Kent Beck himself, is to take everything good to its extreme (hence the appellation Extreme Programming). For example,

The main philosophy of XP, as stated by Kent Beck himself, is to take everything good to its extreme (hence the appellation Extreme Programming). For example, if testing is good, then it must be done to the extreme. Basically this means you will need to have a 100% test coverage to comply to XP. But history proves that extremism and fanaticism are bad and harmful in every area of life, including in software development. You can, for example, read about the consequences of testing to the extreme here [1] [1]: https://brandur.org/fragments/100-percent-coverage https://brandur.org/fragments/100-percent-coverage

wesselbindt 3y ago
Where did the extreme programming gurus advocate for 100% coverage? I've never read the original texts, but I'm familiar with some of their writing, and this doesn't quite jive with my conception of their opinions. Do you have a specific place I can look?
- ryan-duve 3y ago
  Parent commenter said "basically" have 100% test coverage, and I'm not sure what is meant by that. From the text[0]: > Any program feature without an automated test simply doesn't exist. Programmers write unit tests so that their confidence in the operation of the program can be part of the program itself. Customers write functional tests so that their confidence in the operation of the program can become part of the program, too. The result is a program that becomes more and more confident over time -- it becomes more capable of accepting change, not less. > You don't have to write a test for every single method you write, only production methods that could possibly break. Sometimes you just want to find out if something is possible. You go explore for half an hour. Yes, it is possible. Now you throw away your code and start over with tests. [Emphasis mine.] I can see how this is interpreted both ways, so I'll leave it to you. For what it's worth, I found the book to be an easier read than most books on coding practices. [0] Extreme Programming Explained by Kent Beck, Chapter 10 under "Testing"
- michael1999 3y ago
  XP prescribes test-first. Some people have interpreted that as being about 100% coverage, but that misses the point.
shrimp_emoji 3y ago
100% coverage is a coping mechanism for using inferior programming languages (those interpreted ones with dynamic typing).

wesselbindt 3y ago

Where did the extreme programming gurus advocate for 100% coverage? I've never read the original texts, but I'm familiar with some of their writing, and this doesn't quite jive with my conception of their opinions. Do you have a specific place I can look?

ryan-duve 3y ago
Parent commenter said "basically" have 100% test coverage, and I'm not sure what is meant by that. From the text[0]: > Any program feature without an automated test simply doesn't exist. Programmers write unit tests so that their confidence in the operation of the program can be part of the program itself. Customers write functional tests so that their confidence in the operation of the program can become part of the program, too. The result is a program that becomes more and more confident over time -- it becomes more capable of accepting change, not less. > You don't have to write a test for every single method you write, only production methods that could possibly break. Sometimes you just want to find out if something is possible. You go explore for half an hour. Yes, it is possible. Now you throw away your code and start over with tests. [Emphasis mine.] I can see how this is interpreted both ways, so I'll leave it to you. For what it's worth, I found the book to be an easier read than most books on coding practices. [0] Extreme Programming Explained by Kent Beck, Chapter 10 under "Testing"
michael1999 3y ago
XP prescribes test-first. Some people have interpreted that as being about 100% coverage, but that misses the point.

shrimp_emoji 3y ago

100% coverage is a coping mechanism for using inferior programming languages (those interpreted ones with dynamic typing).