Comments on: Twelve Benefits of Writing Unit Tests First http://blog.jtimothyking.com/2006/07/11/twelve-benefits-of-writing-unit-tests-first Stories of a Self-published, Entrepreneurial Fiction Author (née Software Guy) Thu, 21 Aug 2008 06:27:28 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.3.1 By: Blog-to Show Visitors, Welcome! » J. Timothy King's Blog http://blog.jtimothyking.com/2006/07/11/twelve-benefits-of-writing-unit-tests-first#comment-128447 Blog-to Show Visitors, Welcome! » J. Timothy King's Blog Sat, 26 Jul 2008 21:32:29 +0000 http://blog.jtimothyking.com/2006/07/11/twelve-benefits-of-writing-unit-tests-first#comment-128447 [...] “Twelve Benefits of Writing Unit Tests First” [...] […] “Twelve Benefits of Writing Unit Tests First” […]

]]> By: Geek Drivel » Blog Archive » “Twelve Benefits of Writing Unit Tests First” http://blog.jtimothyking.com/2006/07/11/twelve-benefits-of-writing-unit-tests-first#comment-59361 Geek Drivel » Blog Archive » “Twelve Benefits of Writing Unit Tests First” Tue, 09 Oct 2007 16:33:48 +0000 http://blog.jtimothyking.com/2006/07/11/twelve-benefits-of-writing-unit-tests-first#comment-59361 [...] ran across this post today. It’s more than a year old, but it’s still quite [...] […] ran across this post today. It’s more than a year old, but it’s still quite […]

]]> By: J. Timothy King’s Blog » Blog Archive » Does Bad Writing Reflect Poor Programming Skills? http://blog.jtimothyking.com/2006/07/11/twelve-benefits-of-writing-unit-tests-first#comment-10181 J. Timothy King’s Blog » Blog Archive » Does Bad Writing Reflect Poor Programming Skills? Fri, 15 Dec 2006 16:12:34 +0000 http://blog.jtimothyking.com/2006/07/11/twelve-benefits-of-writing-unit-tests-first#comment-10181 [...] Understand the material before you write. If you understand the material, you should be able to explain it to a four-year-old. If you don’t understand it, you won’t be able to explain it to anyone. You’d think this would go without saying. You’d think that programmers particularly would understand the code they write. But frequently they don’t. If they did, they would use unit tests. Instead, they tweak and hack until the code does what they think it’s supposed to. And they end up with a mess. And then they do it to their comments and other documents, too. This is what causes a lot of comments like “This member is the anticipation for audio data to synchronize with the video frames in an interleaved AVI.” The developer who wrote this probably knew how to tweak the data value to get the result he wanted. But he very possibly did not understand what that value actually represented and how it conceptually fit into the rest of the system. [...] […] Understand the material before you write. If you understand the material, you should be able to explain it to a four-year-old. If you don’t understand it, you won’t be able to explain it to anyone. You’d think this would go without saying. You’d think that programmers particularly would understand the code they write. But frequently they don’t. If they did, they would use unit tests. Instead, they tweak and hack until the code does what they think it’s supposed to. And they end up with a mess. And then they do it to their comments and other documents, too. This is what causes a lot of comments like “This member is the anticipation for audio data to synchronize with the video frames in an interleaved AVI.” The developer who wrote this probably knew how to tweak the data value to get the result he wanted. But he very possibly did not understand what that value actually represented and how it conceptually fit into the rest of the system. […]

]]> By: links for 2006-10-18 « Ashish Kulkarni’s Journal http://blog.jtimothyking.com/2006/07/11/twelve-benefits-of-writing-unit-tests-first#comment-9079 links for 2006-10-18 « Ashish Kulkarni’s Journal Wed, 18 Oct 2006 22:27:12 +0000 http://blog.jtimothyking.com/2006/07/11/twelve-benefits-of-writing-unit-tests-first#comment-9079 [...] Twelve Benefits of Writing Unit Tests First The ones I found significant: [...] […] Twelve Benefits of Writing Unit Tests First The ones I found significant: […]

]]> By: Twelve benefits for doing TDD « exceptionz http://blog.jtimothyking.com/2006/07/11/twelve-benefits-of-writing-unit-tests-first#comment-8064 Twelve benefits for doing TDD « exceptionz Tue, 29 Aug 2006 11:25:39 +0000 http://blog.jtimothyking.com/2006/07/11/twelve-benefits-of-writing-unit-tests-first#comment-8064 [...] J. Timothy King list the following twelve benefits you get from doing Test-First programming: [...] […] J. Timothy King list the following twelve benefits you get from doing Test-First programming: […]

]]> By: Йордан Димитров http://blog.jtimothyking.com/2006/07/11/twelve-benefits-of-writing-unit-tests-first#comment-7783 Йордан Димитров Tue, 08 Aug 2006 09:17:17 +0000 http://blog.jtimothyking.com/2006/07/11/twelve-benefits-of-writing-unit-tests-first#comment-7783 <strong>Интересни връзки 2</strong> C# Best Coding Practices Naming Conventions for UI ControlsStringBuilder vs. String / Fast String Operations... Интересни връзки 2

C# Best Coding Practices
Naming Conventions for UI ControlsStringBuilder
vs. String / Fast String Operations…

]]> By: Exploded Clown » Blog Archive » Twelve Benefits of Writing Unit Tests First http://blog.jtimothyking.com/2006/07/11/twelve-benefits-of-writing-unit-tests-first#comment-7767 Exploded Clown » Blog Archive » Twelve Benefits of Writing Unit Tests First Mon, 07 Aug 2006 03:53:02 +0000 http://blog.jtimothyking.com/2006/07/11/twelve-benefits-of-writing-unit-tests-first#comment-7767 [...] Twelve Benefits of Writing Unit Tests First: How do you solve a software problem? How do they teach you to handle it in school? What’s the first thing you do? You think about how to solve it. You ask, “What code will I write to generate a solution?” But that’s backward. The first thing you should be doing— In fact, this is what they say in school, too, though in my experience it’s paid more lip-service than actual service— The first thing you ask is not “What code will I write?” The first thing you ask is “How will I know that I’ve solved the problem?” [...] […] Twelve Benefits of Writing Unit Tests First: How do you solve a software problem? How do they teach you to handle it in school? What’s the first thing you do? You think about how to solve it. You ask, “What code will I write to generate a solution?” But that’s backward. The first thing you should be doing— In fact, this is what they say in school, too, though in my experience it’s paid more lip-service than actual service— The first thing you ask is not “What code will I write?” The first thing you ask is “How will I know that I’ve solved the problem?” […]

]]> By: Paul, Kerri and The Boys » links for 2006-07-30 http://blog.jtimothyking.com/2006/07/11/twelve-benefits-of-writing-unit-tests-first#comment-7679 Paul, Kerri and The Boys » links for 2006-07-30 Sun, 30 Jul 2006 05:07:44 +0000 http://blog.jtimothyking.com/2006/07/11/twelve-benefits-of-writing-unit-tests-first#comment-7679 [...] Twelve Benefits of Writing Unit Tests First TDD (tags: pm scrum work sdlc) [...] […] Twelve Benefits of Writing Unit Tests First TDD (tags: pm scrum work sdlc) […]

]]> By: Orbiz Technology Blog http://blog.jtimothyking.com/2006/07/11/twelve-benefits-of-writing-unit-tests-first#comment-7643 Orbiz Technology Blog Sun, 23 Jul 2006 20:49:05 +0000 http://blog.jtimothyking.com/2006/07/11/twelve-benefits-of-writing-unit-tests-first#comment-7643 <strong>Twelve benefits for doing TDD</strong> Twelve benefits for doing TDD

]]> By: Happy Developer http://blog.jtimothyking.com/2006/07/11/twelve-benefits-of-writing-unit-tests-first#comment-7642 Happy Developer Sun, 23 Jul 2006 15:44:58 +0000 http://blog.jtimothyking.com/2006/07/11/twelve-benefits-of-writing-unit-tests-first#comment-7642 [...] J. Timothy King’s Blog » Blog Archive » Twelve Benefits of Writing Unit Tests First Why do programmers hate writing unit tests? Why do they hate even more writing unit tests before coding? You don’t have to answer. I’ve already heard the excuses. These are rhetorical questions. I have a theory, however, what the real reasons are. Most software developers have never seriously tried test-first. Or if they tried it, they did not do so in a supportive environment where they could learn what they were doing. But more likely the former. So they come up with excuses: “We don’t have time to write unit tests.” Or: “Unit tests can’t bullet-proof your code.” They’re reacting out of fear, not out of empowerment, trying to find reasons for being miserable, rather than making their lives better. The neat thing is that occasionally you’ll find one of these developers who, when you face him with the facts, nearly trips over his own feed backpedalling. That’s fun to watch. And he does this all without ever taking back his opinion of test-first. That’s wicked philosophical. [...] […] J. Timothy King’s Blog » Blog Archive » Twelve Benefits of Writing Unit Tests First Why do programmers hate writing unit tests? Why do they hate even more writing unit tests before coding? You don’t have to answer. I’ve already heard the excuses. These are rhetorical questions. I have a theory, however, what the real reasons are. Most software developers have never seriously tried test-first. Or if they tried it, they did not do so in a supportive environment where they could learn what they were doing. But more likely the former. So they come up with excuses: “We don’t have time to write unit tests.” Or: “Unit tests can’t bullet-proof your code.” They’re reacting out of fear, not out of empowerment, trying to find reasons for being miserable, rather than making their lives better. The neat thing is that occasionally you’ll find one of these developers who, when you face him with the facts, nearly trips over his own feed backpedalling. That’s fun to watch. And he does this all without ever taking back his opinion of test-first. That’s wicked philosophical. […]

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