Hi Sandi, thanks for doing this AMA. When you code, do you follow TDD religiously? I like to write tests, but have a hard time writing tests before functionality, so I tend to write tests after the fact. What downsides do you see to writing tests second?
Sandi Metz, author of Practical Object-Oriented Design in Ruby and 99 Bottles of OOP, believes in simple code and straightforward explanations. She writes, consults, and teaches about OO design.
Andrew, this is my pleasure.
Ah, TDD. I find my code turns out better if I write tests first, but I am deeply sympathetic about how hard that can be. Writing tests first can help drive you to create decoupled code. If you write tests 2nd, and then find that the tests have complicated setup, this suggests that your code is too tightly coupled together. If you write tests first, and insist on having simple setup, you'll naturally end up with nicely decoupled code.
Hi Sandi, thanks for doing this AMA. When you code, do you follow TDD religiously? I like to write tests, but have a hard time writing tests before functionality, so I tend to write tests after the fact. What downsides do you see to writing tests second?
Andrew, this is my pleasure.
Ah, TDD. I find my code turns out better if I write tests first, but I am deeply sympathetic about how hard that can be. Writing tests first can help drive you to create decoupled code. If you write tests 2nd, and then find that the tests have complicated setup, this suggests that your code is too tightly coupled together. If you write tests first, and insist on having simple setup, you'll naturally end up with nicely decoupled code.
That makes sense, thanks!