On 12/23/2010 2:56 PM, Peter Niederwieser wrote:
Adam Murdoch-3 wrote:
Sometimes there are external factors.
I guess I was after something a bit more concrete.
A few examples that come to my mind:
- A test that generates random inputs (property-based testing, testing for
deadlocks, etc.)
- A test that reads inputs/outputs from an external Excel sheet
- An integration test hitting a remote (test) database
- An acceptance test that runs against a live website
Though, pedantically speaking, I wouldn't classify any of those as unit
tests. Even though the 'test' tasks _can_ be used to run all kinds of
tests, I think that's not really what they're for.
In short, tests aren't always deterministic, and rerunning them may increase
my confidence.
I think unit tests by definition should be deterministic... and should
only run when code/configuration changes. That's not saying there isn't
a good reason to have facilities for the types of tests you are talking
about and it may be a good idea to provide the mechanisms to kludge
automated unit testing. But sometimes, calling something what it
actually is shows new avenues of approach.
Just my lurker's two cents.
-Paul
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