From: James Britt <james.britt@...>
Date: 2008-08-04T05:29:30+09:00
Subject: Re: unit testing advice

James Gray wrote:
> On Aug 3, 2008, at 12:03 PM, James Britt wrote:

>> I'm not arguing in favor of dogmatic testing practices, justing 
>> pointing out that there is at least one person who actually walks the 
>> walk.
>>
>> (Besides, when a developer selects Rails as their toolkit they've 
>> already made many code choices long before there are any tests to 
>> drive those decisions, so the TDD/BDD purity thing is sort of a moot 
>> point.)
> 
> Yeah, I think this is a good example of the dogma getting in the way of 
> common sense.  To use Rails and not allow it to generate files and by 
> extension satisfy it's own conventions for you just sounds silly to me.
> 
> My opinion is that the goal of testing is to add some degree of 
> protection to the software you build, not to straight-jacket you as a 
> programmer.

I've been wondering about resistance to "purist" TDD/BDD, and if there's 
some aspect of "listen to your body" to observe.  For example, when 
exercising or dieting, there are assorted rules or regimes to follow, 
but if something is hurting, or if you've constant cravings for some 
food or another, then maybe that's an important sign to deviate from the 
original plan, and not simply a lack of will power or a failure to "do 
it right."

Rather than people applying ad hoc approaches to Test-second 
Development, maybe there are some better practices to be shared for what 
seems to be a common situation.


-- 
James Britt

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