[TIP] Testing Hierarchy

[Douglas Philips]

On or about 2009 Jul 20, at 11:52 PM, C. Titus Brown indited:
> So that's my answer to Noah: whenever you're suspicious of some part  
> of
> your software and feel the urge to do some exploratory testing, do  
> some.
> Then, when you've done the same thing twice, automate it instead of
> doing it a third time.  Soon enough you'll be adding the test code
> before you've even done the exploratory testing once, and then you'll
> be doing TDD.  You're done when you are no longer suspicious of your
> software.

IIRC, in "Test-driven Development" Kent Beck describes tests as  
transmuting fear into boredom.
"Fear" being the fear of changing the code without breaking something.
The suspiciousness here seems to be a similar thing. I like both:
Tests transmute fear/suspicion into boredom.


> Oh, and as an addendum, whenever you're not suspicious of your  
> software,
> you're wrong.

So true, and so easy to forget.


> More seriously, as long as you view "writing code" and "making sure  
> your
> code works" as part of the same job, you'll be fine.  Just don't let
> non-developers push you around by asserting otherwise.

I'd love to redefine developer such that someone writing code without  
tests is not a developer. :)

-Doug