Comments on: Unit tests are a drop cloth http://tech.puredanger.com/2007/07/28/drop-cloth/ Alex Miller's technical blog Mon, 06 Feb 2012 19:39:50 -0800 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.4 By: M Easter http://tech.puredanger.com/2007/07/28/drop-cloth/comment-page-1/#comment-5727 M Easter Fri, 03 Aug 2007 03:31:04 +0000 http://tech.puredanger.com/2007/07/28/drop-cloth/#comment-5727 Nice... If unit tests are the dropcloth, then surely an IDE (e.g. Idea) is like a good paint sprayer when it comes to refactoring.... (assuming that one sprays inside, which may be unlikely) Nice…

If unit tests are the dropcloth, then surely an IDE (e.g. Idea) is like a good paint sprayer when it comes to refactoring…. (assuming that one sprays inside, which may be unlikely)

]]> By: The Disco Blog » Blog Archive » The weekly bag– July 27 http://tech.puredanger.com/2007/07/28/drop-cloth/comment-page-1/#comment-5598 The Disco Blog » Blog Archive » The weekly bag– July 27 Tue, 31 Jul 2007 01:50:18 +0000 http://tech.puredanger.com/2007/07/28/drop-cloth/#comment-5598 [...] Unit tests are a drop cloth- Well said, Alex. [...] [...] Unit tests are a drop cloth- Well said, Alex. [...]

]]> By: Scott Bale http://tech.puredanger.com/2007/07/28/drop-cloth/comment-page-1/#comment-5592 Scott Bale Mon, 30 Jul 2007 22:11:55 +0000 http://tech.puredanger.com/2007/07/28/drop-cloth/#comment-5592 Another analogy I like is that refactoring is a bit like eating a burrito while driving. You want to get from point A to point B without either choking or squirting hot pinto beans in your lap and distracting yourself, causing you to wreck. So taking small bites symbolizes the granularity of your unit tests - smaller bites are more palatable, depending on your choice of hot sauce (i.e. assert statements) - while obviously your setUp and tearDown methods could be represented by your car's camshaft and Taco Bell's sour cream gun, respectively. Another analogy I like is that refactoring is a bit like eating a burrito while driving. You want to get from point A to point B without either choking or squirting hot pinto beans in your lap and distracting yourself, causing you to wreck. So taking small bites symbolizes the granularity of your unit tests – smaller bites are more palatable, depending on your choice of hot sauce (i.e. assert statements) – while obviously your setUp and tearDown methods could be represented by your car’s camshaft and Taco Bell’s sour cream gun, respectively.

]]> By: javakid http://tech.puredanger.com/2007/07/28/drop-cloth/comment-page-1/#comment-5530 javakid Sat, 28 Jul 2007 15:35:12 +0000 http://tech.puredanger.com/2007/07/28/drop-cloth/#comment-5530 that's a good analogy, although I think it will be more beneficial to see the the unit tests as specs instead; and then we could draw other analogies. For example, can we picture a brick factory that is supposed to build square meter bricks measure the bricks length, width and depth by eye ? in my opinion that what we do when we don't write the test cases first. But the test cases become specs the moment we decide write them first ... that’s a good analogy, although I think it will be more beneficial to see the the unit tests as specs instead; and then we could draw other analogies. For example, can we picture a brick factory that is supposed to build square meter bricks measure the bricks length, width and depth by eye ? in my opinion that what we do when we don’t write the test cases first. But the test cases become specs the moment we decide write them first …

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