RubyConf 2008 - Day 1 - Testing Heresies - Francis Hwang

The sessions for RubyConf 2008 day one were nearly over, when I attending this highly entertaining and informative one. I had missed the chance to see a previous presentation by Francis Hwang, and being as test-obsessed as I am, I was not going to make the same mistake twice.

Many people are confused over mocks, stubs, and other fakes. Here are the real definitions.

Gerard Meszaros - Test Doubles
- dummies - passed around but never used
- fakes - work but unstable in production
- stubs - provide canned answers to calls made during test
- mocks - mostly concerned with surface interaction

Classical TDD use real objects.
Mockist TDD will always use a mock for any object with interesting behavior

Problem #1 with mocks
Cannot figure out problem and solution at same time

Problem #2 with mocks
Bugs can slip between layers

Francis Hwang, TDD Clasiscist
- test setup creates records in the db
- no sqlite in test
- when you use test doubles, it's always a big deal

Real world example #1
Ensure that an optimization is actually being used
Redefine the actual surface interaction to 'scream' on error

Real world example #2
Faking a real web service (not written by us)
Best to use stub, to duplicate functionality
Need test, stub, AND test for stub

Dogma - if you tests do not run quickly, there's something wrong with you
Heresy - I'd like my test to run 30 sec. I'd also like a pony

Francis does not use autotest, because he does not want to run all of the tests every time he changes something. Eric Hodel chimed in from the audience says that it can run only what changed. Only if it passes, will it run ALL tests. Me, I loves my autotest... with growl notifications, it's all good.

devver
They say it is a ec2 based distributed test system...

testjour
uses bonjour to trigger a farm of machines in your LAN to perform distributed tests

Dogma - you code should always be well-structured
Heresy - under-structuring can be freeing

Uses example of constantly cleaning small NYC apt. It was living on a boat, where you spent all your time putting things away.

Dogma - Fine grained focus leads to high quality code
Heresy - Never forget the unknown unknowns

System design 101
How likely fail
What will fail look like
How can I find out quickly
How can I limit damage

Dogma - testing makes my job easier
Heresy - testing makes it easier for others to do my job - unless my job keeps growing

Rails has made it so simple to implement simple business logic, so way more is expected now.