shesafish

	Saturday, March 08, 2003

 TDD

Test-Driven Development..

Test-Driven Development.

TDD is being touted as the best thing since, well, just about everything.  I think TDD is nice for simple systems.  By simple, I mean software that does not contain distributed components and integration.  By distributed components I do not mean a web interface, or a simple client to a server. 

I deal every day with software, written in Java, that pulls information from (and pushes information to) systems that we have no control over, and are simply not designed to do it.  We do it anyway, as we've always done it, with a hell of a lot of hard work and brainpower.

There is no panacea for this task.  If we were interacting with databases it would be easy...databases are designed to support access from other software.  If we had control over the remote systems our task would be simpler.

So right now, TDD means nothing to me.  I can't simulate a huge corporate environment running our software, when the behavior of the third-party software we must integrate with is undefined in that environment.  Sometimes there's just no substitute for really hard work and painful observation.

I have yet to see any test methodology that would make headway in our environment.  For those of you working on simple systems that respond to the currently fashionable testing mechanisms -- bravo.  I salute you.  Now let me get back to work.

[java.blogs Day's Entries]

Re: Argh, I'm infected!.

While I am infected, it hasn't progressed to the point of writing UnitTests first. That is how all the "terminally infected" say it should be done, but I'm one of those people who has to learn lessons the hard way, most times. Whether you're interested or not, I'll post my progress/descent into TDD (TestDrivenDevelopment) as it occurs.
[java.blogs Day's Entries]

11:41:11 PM  comment [] | Topics: Java extremeProgramming 

This is probably the worst book I have ever purchased. It is a huge waste of money, trees, and space. I've been meaning to write a whole article on how bad it is.

Core J2EE patterns. I have now finished another of my newly purchased books; Core J2EE Patterns, by Deepak Alur, John Crupi, and Dan Malks.

A good book for anyone with a mind on J2EE development, unless you are a hard-core developer well-familiarized with the patterns Service To Worker, Front Controller, Business Delegate etc.

The thing I like about it the most is that it has one section of typical J2EE refactorings when your application is in a certain problem, and what design patterns can help you out. The next section is a pattern catalogue describing the patterns, but also giving source code on how to implement things. Neat!

My only criticism is that it tends to repeat itself, but that might be a good thing in some cases. ;-)

 [java.blogs Day's Entries]

11:15:09 PM  comment [] | Topics: Java