On Dec 18, 2009, at 2:39 PM, Bart Gauquie wrote:
Do you have negative experiences with writing tests?
No.
I've been using it all my professional career; and I firmly believe it is the only way to develop software, a good test set really helps to move forward at a sustainable pace. Close attention should off course be payed to the quality of the tests also.
You are right on the point that extensive testing does not give you a mathematical certainty that everything works, but having a good test set catches most of the bugs, certainly if you're adapting/refactoring an existing system: which is the goal of Pharo: evolve/refactor Squeak.
Yes. I *love* tests... but if you say "I only integrate the System-Setting change if you provide tests for everything it touches", you will for sure never integrate anything. Marcus