What’s the point of an automated test? I humbly submit that it is to prove that your program does what it’s supposed to.

The things we want to say are incredibly simple. When some data goes in here, it comes back out over there. When it comes out over there, it’s been processed in a particular way.

And yet, in our practice we say neither of these things. We declare things about particular methods[1], and hope that the aggregate effect of the methods is correct. We declare that taking particular actions elicits a particular reaction, and then we have an infinitude of minor variations that mostly take the same paths over and over again[2].

So where is the ambition? Why do we not say what we mean? This data goes from hither to thither; and on its way, it gets processed in such-and-such a way. One might object: the data goes not merely from A to B; it comes from A, then goes to B, C, and D. To which I say, Then we can say that! And Two might object: the data gets processed in one way if it’s going to B, another way if it’s going to C; but there’s this other processing that happens to it, no matter where it’s going. To which I reply, That, too, we can say.

I wish we said these things.

[1] rspec

[2] cucumber

• Uncategorized