On Wednesday 21 December 2005 07:20 pm, Eero Saynatkari wrote:
> Joe Van Dyk wrote:
> > I've found that when I write the tests first, and then write
> > the code, I'm not very concerned about what the code looks
> > like.  When the code passes the test, I drink a beer and party,
> > then move on to the next test.
> >
> > In practice, this means that I'm using a lot of ugly regex's,
> > poorly named variables, and so on.  I'd be more concerned about
> > the readability of the code if there wasn't unit tests behind
> > it.  I'm generally in a rush to finish whatever I'm doing, and
> > figure that since I have a bunch of tests, refactoring stuff
> > later won't be a big deal.
> >
> > Anyone else out there like me?  Or should I be anal about
> > writing good code even with the tests?  I guess that would be
> > ideal, but I'd rather get the functionality done first.
>
> This is the whole 'design after' or 'refactoring' paradigm:
> make it work, then implement a proper design and prettify.
> Passing unit tests prove that nothing was broken :)

I cannot in a million years imagine coding without design. I've 
never coded tests first (I test each class after coding it), but I 
can't imagine why writing the tests first would make one not 
design. If it did make me not design, I wouldn't code test first -- 
I'd make test jigs after.

SteveT

Steve Litt
http://www.troubleshooters.com
slitt / troubleshooters.com