Lately, I've been thinking about testing a lot. Thomas Duff has had some interesting things to say about the XP approach, which is (amongst other things) test-driven.

Naturally, there's been some pondering about how one can practically apply this to Notes & Domino programming — in fact, I feel an article coming on soon (it's about bloody time!) Essentially, test-driven development is all about writing the tests first, rather than diving straight in with the code. Sounds odd at first, but bear with me. Suppose you have a new application or problem to sort out. It could be complex, and you don't really know where to begin in terms of structuring your code (whether that's organising a load of procedural routines or designing an object model). Designing applications is an art, so anything that helps structure one's thoughts can't be bad eh? This is where your tests come in: write those first, and this will help lend a semblance of structure to your solution. In addition, knowing that each component comes from a test scenario means that it gets tested during coding rather than after. Ideally you're then in a position to combine your components into the finished solution with confidence: all your routines / classes / whatever have been through the testing process multiple times.

I'd also add that this approach means that you have more of a chance at avoiding those really stupid design errors, made when you're just too close to your code (or is that just me? :-o)

Does anyone else have thoughts on this?

Filed undertesting, tdd, programming, xp