I think this is my problem -- basically to know how to get some benefit from it. If I have a function in a class that is supposed to return some rows, how would I go about performing a useful unit test on it? In theory (and in my current practice), I can simply dump the array or object, or step through the code with XDebug in Netbeans PHP (love this app!) to see what is taking place. Where would a unit test come into this process in a useful way? Is it because I can abstract the call to that function / class without having code that puts it to the page? Some other benefit? M is for Murray On Thu, Jan 22, 2009 at 10:13 AM, Eric Butera <eric.butera@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: > On Wed, Jan 21, 2009 at 7:01 PM, Murray <planetthoughtful@xxxxxxxxx> > wrote: > > Hi All, > > > > I'd like to understand unit testing better (or, in fact, at all). I > > understand the broad idea that testing Is A Very Good Thing, but when I > have > > tried to look into it further (for example, have just been looking > through > > the PHPUnit site), I always end up thinking 'This looks like more trouble > > than it's worth.' I'm sure that's down to me and not the process of unit > > testing, but I'd like to get some idea of how people on the list actually > > use unit testing in the real world. > > > > I'm assuming that you have your actual application classes and functions > > designed in their own files, and then you build a series of unit testing > > classes / functions in their own sort of space, but do you build these in > > parallel to your application code, or during alpha / beta testing etc? > > > > Any practical or even theoretical advice welcome! > > > > Many thanks, > > > > M is for Murray > > > > Well this was a hard topic for me to grasp too. A lot of times I > still get lazy about it, but I strive to do my best. Unit testing > makes sure your code works as expected. So if you're messing around > with stuff, keep re-running your test suite and see if your changes > break any of your tests. This way you know whether or not your > changes are breaking the very apps that rely on your code. > > Unit testing also allows you to quickly assess problems with different > servers, php upgrades, whatever. > > Of course these are just little points. Just give it a try and keep > going at it. Once I started I noticed that I had been writing my code > all wrong. Lots of weird dependencies, reliance on hard to recreate > state, stuff like that. It helped me to start writing leaner methods > that targeted what they were supposed to do a lot better. > > There's a lot of info on this subject all across the net & in books. > It isn't just limited to php, but programming in general. > > V is for Vendetta? >
