On May 7, 2006, at 9:56 PM, Roy Sutton wrote:

> I'm not sure why everyone automatically assumed he did not use unit  
> testing.  Unit testing certainly can point out there -is- an  
> error.  The fix he proposes for his problem (typoing variable  
> names) tells him -where- the problem is.  Unit tests can tell you  
> generally where you problem is but it still takes the debugging  
> work to step in and find out what -caused- the problem.  I think  
> people are doing Talha a disservice by assuming that if he just  
> tested better his problems would go away.

There have been a couple of good suggestions, but they don't exist  
yet. One was an editor
that understood Ruby and could flag new variables. The other was an  
addition to the Ruby
parser to point out new variables. Sadly, these don't exist.

I can't remember the last time I had a typo problem with Ruby. Years  
ago. And it only lasted
a few seconds. However, I did just have one today with Rails, but  
that was with a filename.
(It had the wrong pluralization.) That problem lasted for about 45sec.

If this is Talha's biggest problem, then he's doing better than most  
and us mere mortals
can't relate. :)
The reality is I don't see typo's being a big problem for most people  
and costing huge chunks
of time on a continuous basis.

Concerning unit testing, Talha may be doing unit testing, but he sure  
is complaining
alot about it being non productive. I think most people are saying  
that unit testing
is more productive than he realizes, he just needs to give it some time.

Jim Freeze