How many of you are Extreme Programmers?

[Peter Hansen]

John Roth wrote:
> 
> > So how many of you guys use XP processes?
> 
> I do. Writing tests before code is something that I've thought would
> be a good idea for literally decades, but it took both XP and having
> the test tool delivered with the language to get me to start.

I know you knows this, but for the benefit of others who aren't
"into" this approach yet, I think a clarification might be in order.

With TDD and XP, the tests are not _all_ written before the code.
In fact, the tests and the code are developed together, with 
rapid alternation back and forth between writing tests (which should
fail at first, because of course the code doesn't exist) and code
(which then passes the tests), tests and code.

And on this note, I'd also like to point out Kent Beck's recent
book "Test Driven Development" http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0321146530/qid=1050520075/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_1/102-3162235-5348141?v=glance&s=books&n=507846) which is a good introduction to the topic.  Also note
that it uses Python in one section to demonstrate using test-driven
development to bootstrap a *unit-testing framework* using itself!

-Peter