Testing: It's a Horrible Idea

The ruby community likes tests. And that's a good thing. But sometimes rubyists go a bit too far with this. Can there be too much testing? Is that considered harmful?

This presentation goes over the problems of "too much testing", and those of a natural consequence of having too many tests: irrelevant/bad tests. It then moves onwards to a few things I've picked up during the last few years that have helped me in keeping my test suites under control.

Transcript

1. Testing It’s a Horrible Idea
2. Nicolas Sanguinetti @godfoca github.com/foca
3. Nicolas Sanguinetti @godfoca github.com/foca
4. TEST TEST TEST TEST TEST TEST TEST TEST TEST TEST TEST TEST TEST TEST TEST TES TES TEST TEST TE EST
5. TEST TEST TEST TEST TEST TEST TEST TEST TEST TEST TEST TEST TEST TEST TEST TES TES TEST TEST TE EST Quickly Find Regressions
6. TEST TEST TEST TEST TEST TEST TEST TEST TEST TEST TEST TEST TEST TEST TEST TES TES TEST TEST TE EST Repeatable Test Process
7. TEST TEST TEST TEST TEST TEST TEST TEST TEST TEST TEST TEST TEST TEST TEST TES TES TEST TEST TE EST Better OOP Design
8. TEST TEST TEST TEST TEST TEST TEST TEST TEST TEST TEST TEST TEST TEST TEST TES TES TEST TEST TE EST Documentation
9. TEST TEST TEST TEST TEST TEST TEST TEST TEST TEST TEST TEST TEST TEST TEST TES TES TEST TEST TE EST Software Without Errors
10. TEST TEST TEST TEST TEST TEST TEST TEST TEST TEST TEST TEST TEST TEST TEST TES TES TEST TEST TE EST Peace of Mind for You
11. This is True
12. Tests are GOOD
13. But if you Abuse them,
14. http://www.flickr.com/photos/katiesnape/5165365743 They Will Harm You.
15. http://xkcd.com/303/ Time to Run http://www.flickr.com/photos/darrentunnicliff/4469318003
16. http://xkcd.com/303/ Time to Run
17. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Oiled_bird_3.jpg Maintenance http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Deepwater_Horizon_offshore_drilling_unit_on_fire_2010.jpg
18. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Oiled_bird_3.jpg Maintenance
19. Difficult to Understand http://www.flickr.com/photos/mscolly/145052885
20. False Sense of Security http://www.flickr.com/photos/glowbird/4927122391
21. We Need Solutions
22. Less Tests
23. Simpler Tests
24. Faster Tests
25. Sometimes it isn’t worth it https://twitter.com/jamesgolick/status/119911430387544064
26. Golden Rule of Testing
27. Listen to your Tests
28. Now forget everything I just said
29. Thanks @godfoca
30. Questions? jobs@cuboxsa.com
31. Resources http://confreaks.net/videos/641-gogaruco2011-fast-rails-tests Fast Rails Tests – Corey Haines http://confreaks.net/videos/659-rubyconf2011-why-you-don-t-get-mock-objects Why Don’t You Get Mock Objects – Gregory Moeck http://blog.rubybestpractices.com/posts/gregory/050-issues-18-testing-dogma.html Dirty Little Secrets About Testing – Gregory Brown http://speakerrate.com/talks/8891-testing-it-s-a-horrible-idea Please rate this talk on SpeakerRate! Thanks! http://speakerdeck.com/u/foca/p/testing-its-a-horrible-idea These Slides :)