The previous thread about testing got me thinking about this again. One of the biggest problems I have in the large with getting developers to write tests is the burden of maintaining the tests when the code changes.
I have this wacky idea that we need the tests more than the dev code; it makes me wish I had some time to study prolog. I wonder: what if all we did was write the tests? What if we threw some kind of genetic algorithm or neural network at the task of making the tests pass? I realize that there are some challenges with the idea: what's the DNA of a computer program look like? Compiled methods? Pure functions? Abstract syntax trees? Objects? Classes? Prototypes? Source code fragments? How are these things composed, inherited, and mutated? I've pitched the idea over beer before; the only objections I've heard have been of the form "that's computationally expensive" and "no one knows how to do that." Computational expense is usually less expensive than developer time these days, so without knowing exactly *how* expensive, it's hard to buy that. And if no one knows how to do it, it could be that there aren't enough of us trying:) Does anyone know of any cool research in this area? _______________________________________________ fonc mailing list fonc@vpri.org http://vpri.org/mailman/listinfo/fonc
