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No testing, no software
time to read 1 min | 141 words
I just tried to spike something, and as usual, I created a console app and started hacking.
It is a non trivial spike, so I started refactoring it to allow proper separation and actually let me handle the complexity that I am trying to contain.
I couldn't continue the spike. Literally. I had no idea how to go about it.
I am currently in the process of moving the spike code into a proper environment, one that has tests, so I can actually work in small increment, and not try to implement the whole thing in a single go.
About an hour later, I have this mostly complete and working, and I can see how the tests helped me get into a situation where I can actually make a small set of changes are get things working.
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I didn't used console projects for a long time. Since I started using UnitTests regularly, I create a testproject (dll) instead, writing the subject under test directly into the test project.
So, instead of testing with F5, I rather use TDD.Net (CTRL-R, CTRL-T and CTRL-R, CTRL-D for debugging).
When I finished exploring, I start over in new projects and leave the exploration project as a reference in the solution.
As I become more and more TDD/BDD-infected I too am finding that all but my tiniest little spike efforts almost always go *-driven rather than me just hacking around. I just get this strange, creepy feeling in my stomach when I start coding without at least some test/spec code already written. :)
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