Albert van der Horst <alb...@spenarnc.xs4all.nl> writes: > Unit testing is a concept that goes well with functions without side > effects. If you have classes, that doesn't work so well.
How so? Unit tests are ideal for testing classes, in my experience; they can be inspected and tested as a distinct unit of code. > For classes use cases are the way to go. That's a category error. Use cases are good for *functional* testing; that is, testing of the system as a whole, with the focus on specific uses to which the system needs to be put. They're quite orthogonal. Neither interferes with the other. It's best to have both. > Think about it. The whole state of an object can affect the way a > method works. So effectively for a unit test you have to put the > object in a whole special fully controlled state. That's right. This is called a “test fixture”, and it's a central concept of unit testing. There is explicit support in xUnit-style unit test libraries (like Python's ‘unittest’) for test fixtures. -- \ “When I was a kid I used to pray every night for a new bicycle. | `\ Then I realised that the Lord doesn't work that way so I stole | _o__) one and asked Him to forgive me.” —Emo Philips | Ben Finney -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
