[TIP] Ideology

Douglas Philips dgou at mac.com
Tue Apr 21 08:39:54 PDT 2009


On 2009 Apr 21, at 10:11 AM, C. Titus Brown indited:

> """
> To paraphrase the regexp saying: you have a problem with your tests,  
> so
> you make your test framework more complicated.  Now you have TWO
> problems...
> """
>
> We're talking about making a number of custom extensions to unittest  
> and
> modifications to our test runner, and in doing so we're adding
> significantly to the complexity of our test runner.  That Seems Bad.
>
> Have other people run into problems doing this or should I stop  
> worrying
> and just shut up?  (hah)

Well, I for one am glad that you won't (ha!) shut up.

The question goes deep: Is the complexity inherent or accidental?

There is a lot of complexity added to make distributed parallel  
testing infrastructures. Is that needed?
Not for me! I test physical devices. To make my tests run in parallel  
I would need real things, not just more processes.

So then the meta question is: Can I buy just the complexity I actually  
need?
No, not if it is wired in.

If the pieces are compose-able then I only pay for the complexity I  
need.
Plugins are still cost the plug-in complexity where/when I don't need  
it, even though the cost seems pretty minor.

I think the point of asking such questions as these are to get to the  
root of what is really needed, rather than accepting some kinds of  
complexity as given...

-Doug




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