On Mon, 20 May 2002, Dave Thomas wrote:
> Actually, by an amazing coincidence... :)  That's something we've been
> talking about doing. There's a brief hold up while I struggle with a
> philosophical question.
>... 
> I'm still not sure about this - what do folks think?

I'd warn  against it. Had the same debate with Bertrand  who 
ignored this advice in Eiffel.

Unit tests are inspection gauges, used to test manufactured goods for spec 
compliance FROM THE BUILDER's point of view. They aren't built-in because 
manufacturers realize that theirs is only view that matters. In a mature
system, EVERYBODY has a view as to whether goods are acceptable, which 
they often formalize by building independent gauges. 

I wrote a longer version of this view for IEEE  at 
http://virtualschool.edu/cox under publications, Planning the Software 
Industrial Revolution.. Sorry, can't provide the precise URL; the net's 
really bogged down right. It should be in my publications list.
-- 
Brad J Cox, Ph.D. bcox / virtualschool.edu, 703 361 4751
For industrial age goods there were checks and credit cards
For everything else there is http://virtualschool.edu/mybank
Java Web Application Architecture: http://virtualschool.edu/jwaa