TDD

Linearity & Non-Linearity & CI

This entry is part [part not set] of 2 in the series Non-Linearity

When we talk about software methods, very early on we come to a place where we simply have to develop a comfortable grasp of non-linear effects. So many conversations founder here, where the relationship between two values becomes something other than a more or less straight line on a piece of graph paper. We spend a lot of time talking about the cluster of concepts we normally shorthand as "complexity". That’s a good enterprise, I think, but I also think […]

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Why I Write A Test

My intent in writing a test is to satisfy myself by the cheapest means possible that the code does exactly what I think it does. I stress that this is my intent. Believe me, fifteen minutes on the internet will reveal to you a barrage of other possible intents. Surely, by now, it will be clear to you that i’m not an essentialist, but an extreme pragmatist w/strong existentialist leanings. My intent is to use the test to underpin my

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You’re Gonna Be Wrong

Dear smart geeks: stop worrying so much about whether you’re gonna get it wrong, you definitely are gonna get it wrong. How do I approach this? Hmmmm. Okay, I see a couple of threads that need to be pulled together. This one’s gonna be clunky, I fear. Ahhh well. I’m definitely gonna get it wrong, too, I spoze. 🙂 the drive to be right is a powerful one. For some of us, perhaps, too powerful. But it does come naturally.

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Your Design Is Broken: It’s TDD, not TDYAR

Think about your last huge unrequited crush. A real one, I m talking. A crush so big you go to sleep thinking of your future together, and wake up, ummm, guilty. The kind of crush that great romantic stories are made from, and for. The wobbly-knee d kind. And a complete non-starter: when I say unrequited, I m being clinical in an effort to minimize the likelihood of breaking out into laughter, as doctors and nurses in every ER around

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One Page Intro To Microtests | Video

A microtest has the following properties: It is short, typically under a dozen lines of code. It is *always* automated. It does not test the object inside the running app, but instead in a purpose-built testing application. It invokes only a tiny portion of the code, most usually a single branch of a single function. It never *reaches* inside an object’s boundaries, though the tester may certainly *look* inside them. It is coded to the same standard as shipping code,

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The Team And Three Flows

When I think about teams, I think about them with a strange mixture of metaphors. First I see a thing that is in some respects like one of our classic pictures of an atom. There’s some particles in the middle, and some others that seem somewhat clearly "outside" like the electrons in their clouds. But that metaphor slips a little. In atoms, the electrons & protons & neutrons are separate and separated. In teams, it’s more like a swarm. So

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The Noobification Of Everything

Friend Matt asked me to elaborate on "the noobification of everything" in the geek trades. This is a floppy vague one as yet, so be prepared to play fast and loose. The so-far endless demand for new software has created a poor skills distribution curve into the trade. Divide ever-so-arbitrarily our ranks into 5, dreyfus-style or thereabouts. 1’s know where to put semi-colons. 5’s know as much as we all know about geekery. We have way too many 1’s for

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Strange Borders (And Bitching)

Thinking this morning about strange borders, led there by a typically weird geepaw route. If u didn’t know, coaches sit around all the time and bitch about their clients. This is perfectly ordinary and maps onto all jobs I think. Such behavior is "good thing, but". It’s important to do and it’s risky as hell. Bitching about clients brings a mixed lot of positive benefit and negative ill. Co-bitching is bonding, for instance. A way for us share, a kind

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How’m’I Gonna Test This?

I often say "how am I gonna test this?" but — language being what it is — my meaning in asking that is not likely graspable by a noob. To get at what i’m really wondering when I ask this, I may have to take a few asides & detours. First. Why am I writing a test at all? What is the test doing for me? This touches a mantra you’ll hear me mutter over and over. "i don’t work

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Hard-TDD vs Soft-TDD

Alrighty-then. This Hard-tdd vs Soft-tdd thing. A couple of days ago, I worked through some underplayed premises of TDD here. Along the way, I touched on what I call Hard TDD vs Soft TDD. The terms derive from AI, where proponents differ on soft-AI vs hard-AI. A semantic association, not a real analogy, so i’ll skip that. Hard vs soft here isn’t about technique, it’s about what we believe the value of the technique includes. And don’t be confused, there

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