Hi all,
As a developer, you read and write code — and lots of it. It might feel like it is the only thing that matters in our profession as we imp...
Some comments have been hidden by the post's author - find out more
For further actions, you may consider blocking this person and/or reporting abuse
I honestly think writing tests is hugely overrated. I've been a professional developer for 27 years (programming for 39) and have rarely used automated testing, or worked anywhere that strongly advocates it. This has never been a problem.
I agree that software can be written without using tests. I learned about testing rather late but personally I’ve experienced too many times that when fixing a bug in X place, the code in place Y broke and I knew about it due to failing tests 🙂
I would not completely agree with that, because I have been working as a Software Developer for almost 3 years and I have not wrote any tests for the first 2 years and as I am moving forward in the Software Development field writing tests seems a good option to maintain the maintainability of the code, because tests ensure you that the things that were working previously are working fine with the things that you have just built and nothing has broken.
Tests has also made the life simpler with the combination of the CI/CD, and yes CI/CD and other pipelines helped me as developer very much.
I agree with this 🙂
Err... what? Unless you changed the original thing while building the new thing, then the original thing will be working the same.
I didn't write any tests until after about 24 years as a professional developer, and then only when it was absolutely insisted upon (rarely)
Bonus tip. Work with a mentor. You learn all sorts of little tricks that will put you light years ahead of your peers. Getting a mentor will probably add more stress/work to your life for a year or two, but certainly worth it.
Great one indeed. I will add it to part 2 I plan on writing in the future 😊
Thanks for your reply, but as stated in the article, I shared tips that worked for me and might help someone else. I don’t see how that is ‘forcing writing tests upon every developer out there’. If you don’t agree with it, then don’t do it 😎
In case you are wondering why testing is important, this post explains it very well 🙂
I disagree to varying degrees with every point in that linked post - but, as you say, it works for some people... so, each to their own 😀
Something small that also helps over time, if you use something (CSS selector or API or function) that you haven't before or are not used to.
Take some time, just read through the docs (not like you are going to write a test on it, but just to have a better understanding. I'm talking about like 10 minutes) and then play around with it. (in jsfiddle / local project / codepen wherever)
Not just to copy and paste for your use case now, but to understand it a bit better for possible use cases later.
I agree. Taking the time to read through something and pay attention to it makes you really understand what you are doing, rather than just how to do it.
& switch to a completely new Linux distro you have never worked with every 3 days.
And code with vim
Let's just conclude that it's the decision of a developer / development team whether to test a codebase or not.
@wojtekxtx It's more about what you test, You don't need 100% test coverage. But to say tests are for newbie developers, is a bit short-sighted.
If it takes you longer to manually test certain features with new code added every day, it may be useful to write certain e2e-tests to test the functionality. If certain logic is very complex, and you want to test every possible flow, or you want to refactor some logic, unit tests can be helpful.
Everyone makes mistakes and introduces bugs at times, junior devs, and seniors. If manual testing is your thing. Go for it, if you think an automated test is useful for your use case go that way👍
Exactly this!
I think we have a different mindset/opinion if I read your reply. And I won't try to convince you. Everyone has their own opinions, and I respect yours 👍
Because tests are tools in your developer toolkit to test changes as the application grows. Of course you can manually test everything, but why not use tests if they could be useful.
It's the same with tools, if it helps you do the job why not use them? If you want to do it without, go for it😀.
Even if you think as yourself as a senior dev that rarely makes mistakes or spots errors soon, the majority of the time there are more devs than just one on a project and it could help you catch a bug sooner if certain components are related.