Re: Timeless Classics of Software Engineering

rem642b wrote:

> > From: "Phlip"
> > Manual or automated unit tests?
>
> Currently when I'm just writing software for my own use, nobody else
> ever looks at my code or runs it, it's all manual tests. I write a new
> function one line at a time, manually checking it's correct before
> proceeding to write the next line of code.

If you automated the check for that line of code, you could leverage a trail of tests to go faster.

> At the top of the function
> are SETQs for the parameters to have canned values for testing purpose.
> When I finish writing and testing every line of code, I wrap it into a
> function definition, and comment out the SETQs at the start, so it uses
> the parameters as given instead of my canned test values.

My cod. You just told me you do half of test-first. But then you comment the tests out and don't preserve them.

No matter how fast and bug-free your code, and how clean your design, you'd be faster, free-er and cleaner by preserving and leveraging those tests!

> I don't know anybody who has surplus money and who has any desire for
> me to write any software for them. No company in this whole SF bay area
> is hiring programmers.

I heard a rumor than everyone with significant "XP" on their resume, in the Bay Area, was hitched. But I wouldn't know...

But I don't mean "Windows XP" ;-)

-- 
  Phlip
  http://industrialxp.org/community/bin/view/Main/TestFirstUserInterfaces