From: Eric Hodel <drbrain@...7.net>
Date: 2005-05-04T06:35:08+09:00
Subject: Re: Typo-checking instead of static typing


On 03 May 2005, at 14:22, Hal Fulton wrote:

> Eric Hodel wrote:
>> On 03 May 2005, at 12:27, Ben Giddings wrote:
>>>
>>> My open question is then: how do you find typos and brainos in 
>>> seldom-run
>>> code in a dynamic language like Ruby?
>> Yes, unit tests and ruby -w.  I wrote the thing in the 'I Rock.' post 
>> between midnight and 4am.  As you can imagine, writing code tired is 
>> fraught with crazy typos, but the unit tests found them all.
>> When I was almost done, I spent 15 minutes on a 1 character typo (rrc 
>> in one spot, rcc in another).  I didn't have a unit test for that 
>> case.
>
> Let me put in a plug for code coverage tools in general.
> Combined with good unit tests, these are truly invaluable.
>
> There's a good one out there, but I forget what it's called --
> <admission>I don't use it much, I've only played with it.</admission>

ZenTest?

PS: ZenTest comes, free of charge, with unit_diff, which is the 
spiffiest test running helper tool ever.  It runs your actual/expected 
outputs through diff helping you spot the differences in massive 
structures.  Or even small ones of one or two lines.

-- 
Eric Hodel - drbrain@segment7.net - http://segment7.net
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