Testing reports

[John Layman]

> Tests which fail for insignificant reasons (like case in an SGML tag)
waste
> developer time and are worse than useless.

One could argue that it's a bigger waste of developer time to complicate
test creation in the interest of discriminating that which is significant
from that which is not in every imaginable potential scenario.  By
implication, you appear to be saying that the trivial work of updating a
test oracle is a poor use of the programming artiste's time.  Artists do
clean their own brushes, you know.  Doing so may be trivial, but it's part
of the process.
 
-----Original Message-----
From: gnucash-user-bounces+john.layman=laymanandlayman.com at gnucash.org
[mailto:gnucash-user-bounces+john.layman=laymanandlayman.com at gnucash.org] On
Behalf Of John Ralls
Sent: Wednesday, April 11, 2012 11:07 PM
To: gnucash at double-bars.net
Cc: warlord at MIT.EDU; gnucash-user at gnucash.org
Subject: Re: Testing reports


On Apr 11, 2012, at 5:06 AM, Colin Scott wrote:

> 
>> I would argue that the contents of the report are more important than 
>> the formatting, at least in the context of how this thread started.
> 
> Hmmmmm.  I'm not at all sure that I agree.  *WHY* would the report
formatting change?
> 
> The fundamental point here is that even if the change is harmless it
should only occur as the result of a specific and specifically intended
action - anything else must be a bug!!!  Either way, any change in the
output should be flagged, either so it may be certified as correct (and then
incorporated into the standard against which subseqent tests will be made)
or so the cause of the change can be tracked down and fixed.
> 
> There are no circumstances I can envisage where it is proper to ignore
*any* change to the output.

Rubbish. Non-trivial programs have both interdependencies between modules
and dependencies on external libraries. Those can -- and do -- change, and
can cause changes in the behavior or output of a module under test. Well
designed and written tests focus developer effort on changes which matter
and ignore changes that don't. Tests which fail for insignificant reasons
(like case in an SGML tag) waste developer time and are worse than useless.

Regards,
John Ralls


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