Is it normal to cry when given XML?

[Chris Angelico]

On Wed, May 6, 2015 at 10:19 AM, Rustom Mody <rustompmody at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Wednesday, May 6, 2015 at 5:38:12 AM UTC+5:30, Chris Angelico wrote:
>> On Wed, May 6, 2015 at 9:35 AM, Mark Lawrence  wrote:
>> > When the two young lads from the consultants I was working with back in 2000
>> > found a bug with xml handling in the supplier's software I almost ended up
>> > in tears.  Why?  They didn't bother reporting it, they simply modified all
>> > their unit testing data to work around the problem, so when we got to
>> > integration testing nothing worked at all.
>>
>> See, that's not a problem with XML. That's not even a problem with
>> unit testing. That's a problem with the belief that the most important
>> thing is to have your tests pass. Sigh.
>>
>
> I smell a PHB¹ in the wings...

It seems likely, yes. That's where the "c'mon guys, get those tests to
pass" impetus usually comes from. The geeks usually know that tests
are a tool, not a goal, although the more evil ones might still wield
that knowledge...

http://bofh.ntk.net/BOFH/1998/bastard98-35.php

ChrisA