[Tutor] I don't get it

[Kirk Bailey]

OK, I think I detected a burned out light bulb.

See, I absorbed all this the eclectic way, no schooling. There's probably holes
all through my brain regarding computing.

Tell me about factoring please?

Um, well, I'm not totally ignorant. Just ALMOST ignorant.

It's the idea of breaking some task down logically into component steps, then
coding those, and building up a program with all these steps. You need to
clearly outline the process it must perform. 

This also seems to have a secret love affair with the idea of algorithms,
processes not defined in any  programming language, to accomplish some task.

Maybe I should go steal a few introductory computer science books?


Yigal Duppen wrote:
> 
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> > According to Extreme Programming you should always write tests
> > before writing the code you try to test. When your code passes
> > all your tests you stop coding, since then you are done. See
> > http://www.thinkware.se/cgi-bin/thinki.cgi/ExtremeProgramming
> 
> Hmm. Talking about lightbulbs erupting over heads... I never got the idea of
> 'test first, code later' until I read Chapter 14 of "Extreme Programming
> Explained". By semi-transcribing an imaginary chat between to developers
> testing and coding, the authors managed to have the equivalent of 10 100Watt
> bulbs over my head ;-)
> Since that time, I'm quite a strict follower of the test->code paradigm.
> 
> > When you refactor you *never* change your tests. They should
> > all run both before and after each refactoring.)
> 
> This is of course a slightly optimistic view.
> 
> For example, one of the simplest refactorings is Rename Method. I can
> guarantee that after applying this refactoring, at least one of your tests
> will fail :)
> 
> When you get to the more elaborate refactorings that modify your code
> structure, this gets even worse. That's why the refactorings in the Book are
> all presented as algorithms with very simple steps -- you are allowed to
> adjust your tests, as long as you _only_ change tests as a direct result of
> applying one of the refactoring-steps.
> 
> > A development session using unit testing and refactoring is
> > sescribed here:
> > http://www.xprogramming.com/xpmag/refactoringisntrework.htm
> 
> It's a bit like the chapter 14 mentioned above. But the nice thing about XP
> Explained is that their test case is far from trivial; yet-another-stack
> example just doesn't seem to thrill me...
> 
> > I then have a small script
> > that will run all the test scripts in a project directory.
> 
> Ahhh. No greater joy than running such a script and seeing the 'OK's scroll
> over your screen (verbose=2 setting in unittest.TestRunner). Sometimes when
> I'm stuck I just hit it over and over again, to have something soothing to
> stare at... I know... I need a life :)
> 
> YDD
> - --
> http://www.xs4all.nl/~yduppen
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> _______________________________________________
> Tutor maillist  -  Tutor@python.org
> http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/tutor

-- 

end

Respectfully,
             Kirk D Bailey


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