"TDD is actually easier than writing the tests afterwards, so why is it so hard to learn?"
I was chatting to somebody at MyConf last week and they came up with that statement. I'm kicking myself now for not asking them to elaborate. I have some ideas but I'm interested in what everyone else thinks.
In what ways is TDD easier than test after? And why is it hard to learn?
Do you know any Javascript programmers who refactor? How hard is it, really? Does Java still have the best tools? In my latest video I show the same code transformation in four different programming languages. You might be surprised at the differences, and actually. how much is almost the same. https://youtu.be/CJI5p4n6ElI
Does it look like this when you're doing design in Java? Java has some of the best refactoring tools out there and a lot of people aren't even aware they exist. In this video I demo how to use them to smoothly transform towards a more object-oriented design, solving the Parrot Kata.
New video out today! @lukadotnet was a developer at Ferrari, working with a high performing team. His inspiring story led me to a new way to approach teaching OO design principles. Let me tell you how it happened and encourage you to try out the Racing Car Code Katas. https://youtu.be/ldthYMeXSoI
Test Driven Development is an enabling practice for Continuous Delivery, and in my latest video I explore why that is, and show a demonstration of doing TDD. It's a code kata for a Christmas song. Not terribly seasonal but hopefully illustrative! https://youtu.be/DIB7DVvNfnA
Cyber-Dojo was invented
as a tool for group practice. You’ll almost certainly learn more from the people around you than you would from solo practice and reflection. And it’s more fun!
My YouTube channel has been going for more than 6 months now, would you believe it!
I have a much better idea now of what kind of videos I'm making so I took the opportunity to publish an updated channel trailer: https://youtu.be/8MZoh_26BoM
Question for TDD practitioners - how long does a normal TDD cycle take? I mean when you're using unit tests that run in less than a minute, and I want to know the time it takes to get round the red-green-refactor cycle as you develop code. What is normal and how long is too long?
@emilybache For me, my inner loop runs every few seconds, whenever I hit "save" in my editor, a separate shell terminal will auto rerun the relevant sub-second tests (often sub-millisecond), and that will flop between failing and passing every handful of runs. Maybe every ten minutes I'll ^C that and use shell history to run a larger scope suite of tests, which includes ruff formatting and linting and type checks, which on my current project takes... 12 seconds.
Unit tests are supposed to help you to find bugs. In some situations you need a Test Double, or a Mock object in your test. That can make it harder! Take a look at the Guided Learning Hour that I just published. https://youtu.be/OuRtBe07T9A#softwaredevelopment#tdd
It's not too late to sign up for the Ensemble training next week with Nitsan Avni and me - half a day of training designed so you can take it back to your team and get value straight away. More information: https://sammancoaching.org/training/introducing_ensemble.html
Cyber-Dojo is a great tool for learning TDD. I just made a video about all the great features it has to make it easier to get better faster: https://youtu.be/lIRF8MgyXho
What does Kent Beck think about Approval Testing? Well as far as I can tell, he's skeptical. My latest video is trying to persuade him of their merits - using Kent's own "Test Desiderata" model. How about you, are you also skeptical? What do you think of my analysis? https://youtu.be/S71ku1VSik8
Mastodon is either just really small, or people don't click on things they see here. Or what am I missing?
I published a video a couple of days ago about Code Smells - it was a lot of work and I was really pleased with it. I was delighted to get about 14 reposts or likes here on Mastondon - that's a lot for me.
However when I look at my stats in YouTube, it shows only 4 views came from Mastodon, out of a total of about 300. My similar post on LinkedIn generated about 20 views for comparison.
@emilybache: Different environment, model, and culture perhaps.
As was mentioned Masto tech seem a bit more savvy and security-minded. I’ve never seen more (different) people talk about anti-ad and anti-tracking measures than I have here…on a recurring basis.
Are you thinking about hiring a technical coach? Or trying to get hired? My new video outlines some FAQs for hiring managers looking to bring in a technical coach. It really shouldn't be any harder than hiring a Scrum Master. https://youtu.be/bl4uPKlsyfg