hi there, well I'm not a meister myself, but spec-ing something you don't know the outside result is a bit hard for me.
I normally work in two modes: * hacking mode: that's when I'm trying to "see" if I can do something, if the result will run, getting to know the problem and such. In these mode I "only" write specs that keep me going further, but those look more like test units. This specs or test-units-specs are something I see as tests that later are a kind of code history ("residual tests" keeps coming to the top of my head) and keep them as long as they don't start becoming a PITA and of course are still valid :-) after I know my hack will do, and know the problem better I switch to typical outside in * bdd developing mode so the thing is outside in only works if you know the outside. And also try to spec only the "right" amount. But for maths calculations I would for sure TEST some thougts, hth joaquin 2010/2/19 Erik Pukinskis <erikpukins...@gmail.com> > Hello Specmeisters! > > I have a bit of a philosophical question for the TDD witches and > wizards out there. I'm working on some code that is really > churning... It's doing complicated calculations, but the actual > desired results are a moving target. The acceptable values, and even > the structure of the software's output are changing constantly. The > internal architecture is changing rapidly, and I'm constantly throwing > away methods I no longer need. > > This has resulted in me no longer writing specs on this part of my > codebase. They just become obsolete very very fast. Changing the > specs constantly feels like a pointless doubling of my effort. Specs > seem to help with debugging and verification that the software is > performing as expected. But I'm spending most of my time trying to > figure out what I should be expecting. I verify that things are > working quickly and informally, because it's likely the definition of > "working" will change before the week is up. > > Am I being stupid? Is it really a pointless doubling, or am I > creating more debugging time for myself than I'm saving without > writing specs? Should I be more religious about Test First? > > Thanks in advance for the insights, > Erik > _______________________________________________ > rspec-users mailing list > rspec-users@rubyforge.org > http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/rspec-users > -- www.least-significant-bit.com
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