[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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