We *really* need a development model change !

[Robert Baruch]

On Thursday 03 January 2002 07:54 am, Andriy Palamarchuk wrote:
> Alexandre Julliard wrote:

> The value of unit tests is exactly in failures! The
> more failures of unit tests we have - the better test
> developers do their work.
>
> The whole programming methodology exists which
> dictates that you write tests first, then implement
> code which makes them succeed.
> Please, look at this short article to better
> understand my point of view:
> "Test Infected: Programmers Love Writing Tests"
> http://members.pingnet.ch/gamma/junit.htm

According to Extreme Programming Installed, the chapter on Unit Tests, page 
97: "Everyone on the team releases code only when all the unit tests in the 
entire system run at 100 percent". So in theory there shouldn't be any 
failures since the code wouldn't make it into the CVS tree. The only way this 
could work in the face of missing functionality is that the tests for that 
functionality are not run until the functionality is implemented.

The value is when you add new functionality (and possibly new tests) and old 
tests break. Then you can pinpoint the changes that caused the old tests to 
break. Again, that can only work if all the old tests succeeded, which means 
you can't include tests that you know will fail in a release.

--Rob