Test-driven development and code size

[Diez B. Roggisch]

Joel Hedlund wrote:

>> test-driven development merely means that you take that test case and
>> *keep it* in your unit test. Then, once you're assured that you will
>> find the bug again any time it reappears, go ahead and fix it.
> 
> My presumption has been that in order to do proper test-driven development
> I would have to make enormous test suites covering all bases for my small
> hacks before I could getting down and dirty with coding (as for example in
> http://www.diveintopython.org/unit_testing). This of course isn't very
> appealing when you need something done "now". But if I understand you
> correctly, if I would formalize what little testing I do, so that I can
> add to a growing test suite for each program as bugs are discovered and
> needs arise, would you consider that proper test-driven development? (or
> rather, is that how you do it?)

Sounds good to me. IMHO there are two ways one gathers tests:

 - concrete bugs appear, and one writes a test that reproduces the bug &
eventually after the fix runs smoothly

 - new features are planned/implemented, and the tests accompany them right
from the start, to allow .. .well, to test them :)

I always found it difficult to "just think" of new tests. Of course if you
_start_ with TDD, point two is applied right from the start and should
apply.

Diez