Post #1722059

2026-04-27 07:28 UTC

@AT1ST @phillmv @jneen That's my approach too. I don't know if it's the best approach; for simple stuff I can write the tests first but for more significant programs I don't necessarily know how to structure the tests without the program in front of me. Having said that, maybe the test-first approach will help keep my software not becoming a ball of confusion.....

Replies (1)

@AT1ST@mstdn.ca 2026-04-27 07:35

@brib @phillmv @jneen For me, it's less about how confusing the software can become, but more about "Is what I am testing for actually what I want?". I can more easily manually verify that it makes sense than I can automatically come up with the contracts I want, and the latter leads to...not finding out until later that I don't actually want to do it that way, and sunk cost fallacy kicks in (As opposed to saying "Well, okay, let's try something else then.".). I don't want green tests confirming that I did the wrong thing correctly; I'd rather they act as a "Your development is deviating from what you last thought was good; are you *sure* you wanted to make that update?".

Open ##1722060