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"As for Joel’s consistent dismissal of unit testing, he’s just wrong about that. Unit testing (done TDD style) does not slow you down, it speeds you up." One a
by plinkplonk 17y ago
"As for Joel’s consistent dismissal of unit testing, he’s just wrong about that. Unit testing (done TDD style) does not slow you down, it speeds you up."
One assertion counters another. Joel is wrong because "Uncle" Bob says so. Why do TDD zealots sound like religious preachers?
No harm writing unit tests. They serve well for (a certain amount of) regression testing. The whole Test Driven approach to designing software is more dubious (but wildly endorsed by the Agile consultant crowd).
More sober developers seem to disagree.
From Coders at Work
"Seibel: What about the idea of using tests to drive design?
Norvig: I see tests more as a way of correcting errors rather than as a way of design. This extreme approach of saying, “Well, the first thing you do is write a test that says I get the right answer at the end,” and then you run it
and see that it fails, and then you say, “What do I need next?”—that doesn’t seem like the right way to design something to me."
- hs 17y agothese great doers who shape the world don't seem to like unit testing. i'll follow them, at least because they are smarter than those bloggers.
- gjm11 17y agoIf you happen not to be as smart as the Great Doers, then imitating them might turn out to be a bad idea.
- raganwald 17y agodo not follow in the footsteps of the sages, seek what they sought.
- plinkplonk 17y ago"do not follow in the footsteps of the sages, seek what they sought." but do listen to their advice and do your own thinking. The point is not to write tests because Norvig doesn't, or equally, to write tests because "Uncle" Bob does. Just think about what they say before copying them blindly especially when you encounter methodology vendors, "naked men who sell you their shirt" as it were, and not succumb to the latest snake oil nostrum just because its vendors have loud voices.