> Over the years, the test-first rhetoric got louder and angrier, though. More mean-spirited.
Where are those mean TDD zealots? Can you point me at blog posts or mailing list messages displaying such behavior? I've never seen it personally. On the other hand, now and again a blog post like this comes up that's full of disdain towards the practice of testing first. I do TDD because it helps me get my work done. I'm happy to help others write tests if they wish, but I'd never look down on another developer because he or she doesn't use this tool. Some people like drawing diagrams, some people like to use an IDE... Do what works for you.
If you were developing rails apps in the mid-late 2000s then you'd have known too many to count.
There was a period in time between 2005-2008 in Boston where if you didn't practice TDD you were persona non-grata.
I think interestingly enough, a good number of those people now have 10+ years experience programming and now understand what those of us who had 10 years experience at that point in time were trying to tell them.
The irony is that that attitude is something you see from rails people about anything that's currently fashionable in the rails world. And I think they picked it up from DHH himself. You didn't get the same kind of TDD zealotry among e.g. Django people.
Where are those mean TDD zealots? Can you point me at blog posts or mailing list messages displaying such behavior?
"My thesis is that it has become infeasible, in light of what's happened over the last 6 years, for a software developer to consider himself 'professional' if he does not practice test driven development."
Where are those mean TDD zealots? Can you point me at blog posts or mailing list messages displaying such behavior? I've never seen it personally. On the other hand, now and again a blog post like this comes up that's full of disdain towards the practice of testing first. I do TDD because it helps me get my work done. I'm happy to help others write tests if they wish, but I'd never look down on another developer because he or she doesn't use this tool. Some people like drawing diagrams, some people like to use an IDE... Do what works for you.