Comments on: On Unit Testing Requirements http://shawnwilsher.com/archives/146 Wed, 03 Mar 2010 21:06:45 -0800 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 hourly 1 By: Standard8 http://shawnwilsher.com/archives/146/comment-page-1#comment-2755 Standard8 Mon, 31 Mar 2008 07:55:50 +0000 http://shawnwilsher.com/archives/146#comment-2755 As a mailnews peer, where we are trying to get a testing structure in place at the moment, I'm very interested in what toolkit/core is doing. I certainly remember Benjamin blogging about test cases for toolkit being mandatory, but I can't remember it being posted on newsgroups etc or anywhere else (apart from wiki, which unless you read the changes each day, you're unlikely to notice). Certainly I think our expectations of new contributors should be lower. On one or two patches where I can see the benefit of test cases (even just in fixing the patch, let alone regression testing), I have offered to write the test or at least do a structure for the test. Yes it may be more work, but then at least we get the patch and a test in, rather than a patch posted and not checked in because it hasn't got a test even though it may be clear it would work. I think we have to be careful because we can turn away new developers with a requirement like this, but at the same time, some of the test cases are so easy to write, we just need to be able to show developers how easy they are to write. As a mailnews peer, where we are trying to get a testing structure in place at the moment, I’m very interested in what toolkit/core is doing.

I certainly remember Benjamin blogging about test cases for toolkit being mandatory, but I can’t remember it being posted on newsgroups etc or anywhere else (apart from wiki, which unless you read the changes each day, you’re unlikely to notice).

Certainly I think our expectations of new contributors should be lower. On one or two patches where I can see the benefit of test cases (even just in fixing the patch, let alone regression testing), I have offered to write the test or at least do a structure for the test. Yes it may be more work, but then at least we get the patch and a test in, rather than a patch posted and not checked in because it hasn’t got a test even though it may be clear it would work.

I think we have to be careful because we can turn away new developers with a requirement like this, but at the same time, some of the test cases are so easy to write, we just need to be able to show developers how easy they are to write.

]]> By: Stuart Parmenter http://shawnwilsher.com/archives/146/comment-page-1#comment-2754 Stuart Parmenter Mon, 31 Mar 2008 06:53:17 +0000 http://shawnwilsher.com/archives/146#comment-2754 Shawn: Get the community to help write tests. They don't have to come from the "module owner" or the "peers" or even code contributors. Our community is huge, and I'm sure there are people that would love to help and can take some of the burden off of you guys. Shawn: Get the community to help write tests. They don’t have to come from the “module owner” or the “peers” or even code contributors. Our community is huge, and I’m sure there are people that would love to help and can take some of the burden off of you guys.

]]> By: Rob Sayre’s Mozilla Blog » Blog Archive » The Back Burner http://shawnwilsher.com/archives/146/comment-page-1#comment-2753 Rob Sayre’s Mozilla Blog » Blog Archive » The Back Burner Mon, 31 Mar 2008 06:24:24 +0000 http://shawnwilsher.com/archives/146#comment-2753 [...] Shawn Wilsher: “Most module owners and their peers are often patchers as well. If they have to now write tests for other people’s patches, do reviews in their module, and do patches elsewhere (because nobody who’s a peer or module owner really works in just one module), they are highly likely to put something on the back-burner. Personally, any bug that wasn’t a serious issue that required me to write a test would probably become very low priority (and I suspect that to be the same for most other people).” [...] [...] Shawn Wilsher: “Most module owners and their peers are often patchers as well. If they have to now write tests for other people’s patches, do reviews in their module, and do patches elsewhere (because nobody who’s a peer or module owner really works in just one module), they are highly likely to put something on the back-burner. Personally, any bug that wasn’t a serious issue that required me to write a test would probably become very low priority (and I suspect that to be the same for most other people).” [...]

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