[Tutor] Where to start with Unit Testing

[Che M]

> > The idea of unit testing/test driven development has remained
> > foreign to me throughout my time trying to learn Python--by choice.
> > I want to make desktop GUI applications and I don't use MVC, so
> > the idea of writing tests strikes me as far more work--and a major
> > delayer of getting to an application that actually does something--
> > than simply using the software myself and noting problems.  It
> > sounds like TDD is probably the most proper way to go about things,
> > but, in the interest of getting something out of Python to warrant the
> > time I've put into it, I favor a "good enough" approach for now.
> 
> Writers just call this a rough draft. Perfection is in the revisions
> that come after a little thought.

Well, I don't see what I'm doing as a rough draft, as I am attempting
to hone it to "perfection" (that is, a working app)--just without unit testing.

A different analogy comes to my mind; I once saw two different sets of
people analyze data.  One did it "by hand":  visually inspecting thousands
of signals herself and typing Y or N to accept or reject each signal.  The
other did it with an automated system that accepted or rejected signals 
based on fuzzy logic.  In an important interpretation, the automated system 
was far better, and yet the first scientist was done with her analysis and
accepted for publication before the second team even had the bugs worked 
out of the automated system!  Yes, I think the slow-but-more-proper team
did the more correct thing, but there is something to be said for "good
enough", too (it works for evolution, for example).



 		 	   		  
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