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in reply to Testaholics Anonymous (or how I learned to stop worrying and love Test::More)

I test as much as I can, for two reasons:
  1. I have found the weirdest stuff break, stuff I would never have imagined.
  2. It's a form of documentation, for those of us without documentation sections in our non-existent project plans.

The only warning I'd have is that whenever a test fails, you have to make sure it's testing what you want it to. Recently, I made a necessary non-backwards-compatible interface change. Worked fine. Then, I started using it. Made a few more changes, then BAM! a test started failing. I looked deeper and found it was a test I hadn't updated when I made my interface change. The test hadn't been testing what I thought it had.

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We are the carpenters and bricklayers of the Information Age.

Then there are Damian modules.... *sigh* ... that's not about being less-lazy -- that's about being on some really good drugs -- you know, there is no spoon. - flyingmoose

  • Comment on Re: Testaholics Anonymous (or how I learned to stop worrying and love Test::More)

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Re: Re: Testaholics Anonymous (or how I learned to stop worrying and love Test::More)
by stvn (Monsignor) on Mar 31, 2004 at 16:35 UTC
    It's a form of documentation, for those of us without documentation sections in our non-existent project plans.

    Amen to that brother dragonchild! Although more times than not for us, the "documentation" phase is usually right before/after the "testing" phase, and both of them are in the always nebulous "last few weeks" of the project. I have been thinking about pushing the Test Driven Development Philosophy as a way to avoid this all too common scenario, and get both tested code and (pseudo) documentation in one fell swoop.

    -stvn
[reply]
      Amen to that brother dragonchild!
      Test-ify! Test-ify!
      (Shouldn't this thread be titled "Dr. Testlove..."?)
      The PerlMonk tr/// Advocate
[reply]
        Test-ify! Test-ify!

        That reminds me of a little song!

        (I have no real excuse - it was late and I'd had a bad day :-)

[reply]

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