Where did you learn to unit test? How did you learn?

[Christopher Blunck]

Hi all-

This is my second generic question posted to c.l.p (the first was 'How
many of you are Extreme Programmers?') but it seems like a somewhat
appropriate discussion for the group.

I've noticed in my development that Python programmers (in general)
write more unit tests than their java counterparts.  If I download a
project off of jakarta.apache.org, it very rarely has unit tests. 
However, when I download a python module, it frequently has unit
tests.

I'm in a position where I'm trying to spread the testing bug to my
team.  It's remarkable to watch folks who were once viciously opposed
to unit testing adopt it  as being absolutely critical during
application development.  While this is encouraging, it is far from
the common case, and I'd like to improve that.

What advice can you offer on spreading the testing bug around?  

What success stories do you have?  

What practices did you follow?  

Did you beat people over the head with it until they wised up?  

Were you softer in your approach?  

What worked?  

What were the long term implications?

How quickly did unit testing catch on?

Or did unit testing never catch on?



Any insight you can offer would be appreciated.


-c