Shipley on Unit Testing

Wil's latest posting is something I would normally link-blog, but it's so important that I have to put it here.

He's wrong.

Wil's posting is damaging to the software profession. Here's someone smart and successful telling the world in very absolute terms "unit testing is bad". I'm the first to admit unit testing can be done badly, can't be applied everywhere, and is not a panacea. But it's the best thing that's happened to software quality since assertions. Wil's attack on unit testing is an effective attack on software quality itself.

I'm happy to see the community pushing back. I like how Gus wrote up his personal experience. Michael Tsai took the time to write an exceptional rebuttal. I started to write my own rebuttal, but saw it would take days to properly de-screed and achieve the level of lucidity and politeness Michael already achieved. Bravo.

Update: Wil makes up for the last posting. While this is great advice, I'd add the even more intelligentical thing to do is not start skool in the first place. Avoid the dark sarcasm of the classroom.

Friday, September 23, 2005
12:00 AM