<div dir="ltr"><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Mon, Sep 29, 2008 at 2:09 PM, Kumar McMillan <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:kumar.mcmillan@gmail.com">kumar.mcmillan@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
<div class="Ih2E3d">On Mon, Sep 29, 2008 at 12:15 PM, Alfredo Deza <<a href="mailto:arufuredosan@gmail.com">arufuredosan@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br>
> Right now I am in the middle of writing a web status script that keeps<br>
> getting increasingly more complicated and bulky. Do I have to wait until I<br>
> am satisfied with the script and then start writing tests? or should I start<br>
> writing tests as soon as I start developing?<br>
<br>
</div>I'd say you are probably beyond the point at which you should start<br>
writing tests so now is a good time to start. However, I [personally]<br>
find it important to leave breathing room when beginning a new area of<br>
development in a project -- in other words, I give myself time to<br>
explore the problem in code before writing tests. I think of this as<br>
a prototype stage and the code might even get thrown away. Once I<br>
have a vision for the architecture then I start writing tests as soon<br>
as possible and add any new features with accompanying tests. This is<br>
sort of like the TED (test enhanced development) that Grig and others<br>
described but it's got a bell curve to it where as soon as the<br>
architecture stabilizes it then becomes TDD (test driven development)<br>
for me.<br>
<font color="#888888"><br>
Kumar<br>
</font></blockquote></div><br>These are GREAT pointers.<br><br>Coming from a zero testing development in BASH, it is kind of hard to get used to testing. I think the approach of having the architectural design almost figured out is important to avoid writing a huge amount of tests that might be thrown away.<br>
<br>Thanks a lot for all the answers.<br><br><br>Alfredo<br></div>