Notes from Day 1 and Day 2.

Notes from the third and the last day of the conference:

Test for better code or coding for better tests?, Luca Milanesio

  • path to damage a project using TDD: good begining -> more code, more tests -> more failing tests -> more breaking tests -> less refactoring of failing tests -> bigger technical debt in project,
  • tests should give enough confidence so the code is valid,
  • tests cannot be more complex than application itself,
  • tests should be accurate:
    • small, readable, explicit and repeatable,
    • no side effects nor hidden logic in helpers, loops or random values,
    • tracable to a requirement (is there something not working in application when test fails?),
    • use Pitest to check whether test is good,
  • as little of tests as possible:
    • use experience over rules,
    • don’t waste the time to write too complex tests,
    • size of tests should always be smaller then application code,
  • do code reviews – they makes you a better developer,
  • if you have a good design you don’t need tests,
  • don’t write tests of simple, readable code (like POJOs in Java),
  • integration tests check different contracts matching together while unit tests are checks of single contract,

I have to admit that was the most controversial presentation I attended on this conference. It is a part of movement that criticizes idea of TDD started recently by already famous and classic post written by David Heinemeier Hansson. I think this whole discussion around TDD is really valuable and it is always good to look at the case from different angle. However I would be careful to promote not writing tests as a solution to problems with TDD. It is not. Such way of developing project in hands of not experienced developer (or simply bad one) will cause more harm than good.

Reactive Java, Tomasz Kowalczewski:

That was another talk about reactive programming gaining the momentum currently. Tomasz was presenting RxJava library from Netflix. The library seems to be a powerful implemtnation of RxObservables provided by Microsoft. Definitely I need to find some time to give it a shot!

Get Unblocked, Denise Jacobs:

I would like to say I have some good notes from the last presentation on 33rd Degree. 🙂 But I haven’t. This does not mean the talk was poor and not worth to attend it. It was about our creativity and what stops us from being creative. It is not so surprising but our thoughts, mood and our opinion on ourselfs is what makes us blocked when it comes to create something (let it be small or big thing or whatever you want).

This whole stuff you probably know already or it is just nothing new for you at least. However it is worth to go and check the following links. On Denise’s page there is a shorter version of the talk. It is worth to see it. You can check the presentation slides as well. And there are two, quite interesting TED talks Denise has mentioned as well:

Categories: varia

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