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As a beginner, you won't be building anything big, probably. Focus on learning the stack, the language, MVC. Get to know the libraries. When you are comfortable

As a beginner, you won't be building anything big, probably. Focus on learning the stack, the language, MVC. Get to know the libraries. When you are comfortable with that, learn how to test. Now, I believe 100% test coverage is plain silly. There are things you don't really have to test, and you are the only one who can tell. I just started building a new app, and haven't done any testing until I was half-way through the first iteration (what I considered to be my first public alpha). I wrote a few tests to make sure the functionality I'd implemented would still work when I changed the code, then I moved to a more TDD dev style. I wrote a few (maybe 10) tests for things I wasn't sure how they'd behave, noticed I could fix some of my code. So, TDD can help you, for sure. But don't get too caught up in writing tests if it's getting in the way of actually writing your code.

drstewart 14y ago
>Now, I believe 100% test coverage is plain silly. Agreed with this for sure. It makes maintaining tests unsustainable and time consuming to write. Cover your bases cases and make sure that important failure cases are covered. Don't try cover every possible iteration under the sun. I find that well written tests should almost read like executable documentation.
- IanMalcolm 14y ago
  Also, I like to add a test for something every time someone reports a bug, to make sure there are no regressions (specially if it's a security problem). It also helps reproducing the bug and documenting it.
wallawe 14y ago
Great. Thanks for this. I am still trying to understand the intricacies of MVC architecture if that gives you any indication of my experience. I am a front end guy and have worked in the Views layer a good bit but this will be my first real language (Ruby) and framework. I felt like I was trying to cram too much in all at once. I think I will definitely wait to learn more about testing.
- IanMalcolm 14y ago
  How is your programming experience overall? I'd suggest learning ruby first, rails later.
  - wallawe 14y ago
    HTML, CSS and a little bit of Javascript/jQuery... I'm self taught, just finished an internship in front end dev at livinsocial, but want to get down to the real stuff, you know. But I'll take your advice I think and learn a little more about Ruby before continuing with all these Rails tutorials and what not.

drstewart 14y ago

>Now, I believe 100% test coverage is plain silly. Agreed with this for sure. It makes maintaining tests unsustainable and time consuming to write. Cover your bases cases and make sure that important failure cases are covered. Don't try cover every possible iteration under the sun. I find that well written tests should almost read like executable documentation.

IanMalcolm 14y ago
Also, I like to add a test for something every time someone reports a bug, to make sure there are no regressions (specially if it's a security problem). It also helps reproducing the bug and documenting it.

wallawe 14y ago

Great. Thanks for this. I am still trying to understand the intricacies of MVC architecture if that gives you any indication of my experience. I am a front end guy and have worked in the Views layer a good bit but this will be my first real language (Ruby) and framework. I felt like I was trying to cram too much in all at once. I think I will definitely wait to learn more about testing.

IanMalcolm 14y ago
How is your programming experience overall? I'd suggest learning ruby first, rails later.
- wallawe 14y ago
  HTML, CSS and a little bit of Javascript/jQuery... I'm self taught, just finished an internship in front end dev at livinsocial, but want to get down to the real stuff, you know. But I'll take your advice I think and learn a little more about Ruby before continuing with all these Rails tutorials and what not.