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> I'm starting to wonder if he's ever built a moderately complex system, involving integrations, message queues, several data stores, a handful of third-party l

> I'm starting to wonder if he's ever built a moderately complex system, involving integrations, message queues, several data stores, a handful of third-party libraries and APIs and deployed on more than 3 machines. Erm… Have you heard of 37Signals? > TDD is a tool to manage complexity. It's an advice, not a recipe. Like any technology - it isn't a substitute for thinking. I don't think you disagree with DHH here. The key point is TDD cargo-culting has encouraged codebases to become deformed beyond recognition in pursuit of unit isolation, which btw provides no guarantee that a system even works end to end.

slavoingilizov 13y ago
> which btw provides no guarantee that a system even works end to end. Nor shoud it. Some things you test in isolation, others you test together. I am not making fun of dhh or Basecamp (37signals is the company, not a system). I even read most of his stuff and admire him. All I'm saying is that there are many systems far more complex than Basecamp and when you cannot fit the whole thing into your head, TDD helps to divide and conquer. I am against blindly following TDD, but I am also against dismissing it because it gets in the way when building a Rails app.