Unit testing - suitable for all development?

[John J. Lee]

kylotan at hotmail.com (Kylotan) writes:
[...]
> This is one thing that puzzles me. I don't write bug-free code - far
> from it - but I can't say I remember any significant times when I
> introduced code that broke earlier code. I follow the Firefox and
> Thunderbird open source projects and often hear about 'regressions' in
> the latest builds. This surprises me, as I just don't get this in my
> own work. I suppose the main difference is that my projects are an
> order of magnitude smaller and every line of code is written by
> myself.

That's certainly part of the explanation, but I suspect not all of it.
I think you're failing to notice regressions that you would find if
you had good, high quality, unit test coverage.

Mind you, the code that I've thoroughly applied unit testing to is
choc-a-bloc with obscure special cases, because it has to conform to
complicated internet standards, so it probably benefits more from unit
testing than other kinds of code.  Other people with more experience
in different areas report similar regressions, though.


John