Re: Three Law of TDD - to strictly follow, or not?

Starting with acceptance tests is a great idea. So is starting with high
level unit tests, mocking the details, and then working your way down.
Also, sometimes if I think I know what the essence of the problem is I will
start there, or if I'm not even sure how I am going to do it I may just
pick something to spike.

Any of these techniques, or a combination, can be used with a given story.
TMTOWTDI

On Thursday, August 28, 2014, George Dinwiddie [email protected]
[testdrivendevelopment] <[email protected]> wrote:

>
>
> Michal,
>
> On 8/28/14 12:03 PM, Michal Svoboda [email protected]
> <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','[email protected]');>
> [testdrivendevelopment] wrote:
> > Kaleb Pederson [email protected]
> <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','[email protected]');>
> [testdrivendevelopment] wrote:
> >> When the entire test is written up front (for a new class at least)
> >> the test will fail, because a failure to compile is considered a
> >> failure. The problem that I have with the approach is that when it
> >> "passes", does it pass for the right reason? Or, do we have
> >> unnecessary test code? or production code? Did the test ever fail for
> >> the expected reason, or did it fail only in the form of a compilation
> >> failure?
> >
> > Hi Kaleb,
> >
> > I hear what you are saying. But it really goes down to that gut feeling.
> > Sometimes I want to see the whole story first, not just "once upon a
> > time there was an object". It usually depends on what level of certainty
> > I feel over my requirements. The objective is to drive the design with
> > the test, not to just write it first.
>
> I write acceptance tests all at once. I write unit tests a bit at a
> time, often starting with the creation of a new object whose definition
> does not yet exist. In this fashion I work inside-out within the bounds
> of outside-in.
>
> > Even if the test is written in a bigger chunk, you can still add in the
> > code one bit at a time and see the test fail for various reasons until
> > you get (and subsequently fix) the desired one.
>
> With effort, you can. But how does that drive the design?
>
> - George
>
> --
> ----------------------------------------------------------
> * George Dinwiddie * http://blog.gdinwiddie.com
> Software Development http://www.idiacomputing.com
> Consultant and Coach http://www.agilemaryland.org
> ----------------------------------------------------------
>
>  
>