On Wed, Apr 10, 2013 at 5:45 PM, Ihe Onwuka <> wrote:
> On Wed, Apr 10, 2013 at 5:38 PM, Ihe Onwuka <> wrote:
>> On Wed, Apr 10, 2013 at 5:30 PM, Dimitre Novatchev <> wrote:
>>>> I'm completely bemused.
>>>
>>> So am I :)
>>>
>>>
>>> Yes, the primary purpose of unit tests is to be able to fail. An unit
>>> test that always passes is useless.
>>>
>>
>
> I think some of the bemusement is because the development community
> have (mis)appropriated unit testing as a development methodology (the
> mis is my opinion).
>
> The primary purpose of testing (all levels of testing) is risk
> mitigation. In that context it is easy to see why a test that fails
> when there is no bug is useless.
>
> It isn't mitigating any risk.
Worse it is making us spend time and effort investigating it and then
updating it so that it doesn't fail next time.
