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I hate testing.
It feels like a complete waste of time, doesn’t it? Why would I write a test when I can spend that time actually writing code?
One day I was in an interview. The interviewer asks, “So what’s your approach for testing?”
I panicked. I’ve never really done it before. What am I supposed to say?
I tried to recite everything I’d learned from random YouTube videos.
The interviewer saw right through it and looked at me like a lost cause.
That was brutal.
So, I decided to try testing in a new project.
Writing my first test feels exactly like writing my first ever program (It wasn't exactly the first, but probably the first time I persisted for more than 5 minutes)
I have no idea what to do.
So I did a little bit of research.
Apparently, there are three steps
Plan what you are going to implement. Write a test for that. The test should first fail because you haven't written the implementation.
Write code that passes the test
Refactor to improve the code
It was not fun, but I managed to get it done.
It definitely feels like it slows me down.
But then something magical happens. My code doesn’t break when I add new stuff (at least not as often).
It happens for 3 reasons:
The test is constantly running. If something breaks, I know immediately I messed up something
This TDD approach forced me to think about cases that could make the program fail. So I write code to defend those cases.
It also forces me to think about what I actually want to implement instead of just winging it.
After that, I realized that writing tests isn’t something optional or gimmicky.
I would go as far as saying it might be one of the most important factor that determines code quality.
With that said, I still hate it.
But I probably won’t stop learning how to do it.
- Fee from Anime Coders
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