On Mon, 2006-06-19 at 22:26 +1000, Adelle Hartley wrote: > Hi, > > > Does anyone here have any experience with mutation testing, > > (http://benno.id.au/blog/2006/06/18/mutants), or have any > > opinions on it? > > Intriguing, but I have doubts about it being a sensible path. > > Surely, for any interpreted language, it ought to be possible to build a > version of the interpreter that records which parts of the byte code were or > weren't executed? > > Mutation seems kind of hit or miss.
I can see the point, never done it though... When using test driven development you have a set of test scripts that ensure the health of your application. How do you actually test the validity of your testing regime, by deliberately breaking your application and then updating your tests to ensure that this particular problem is picked up correctly by your test scripts if needed. Consider the difference between testing requirements for a learner driver for the roads in the outback, Sydney and then the race track. Each has different levels that must be tested to. It comes down to how much certainty you want in testing. For a lot of software this is just not necessary the consequences of an error do not pay back the investment. For a machine injecting clients with radiation that can kill them then the test requirements are different and you want to be certain that errors are so unlikely that it is so unlikely that it will occur. Programs have killed, there was also that car that stopped on the freeway due to software. Thanks KenF PS: For extra points what it the difference between Defect free and error free. :-) _______________________________________________ coders mailing list coders@slug.org.au http://lists.slug.org.au/listinfo/coders
