TDD is Not a Stupid Idea, It is Brilliant
TDD is counterintuitive, and because of it, it is undoubtedly one of the toughest concepts to learn in programming.
The conception of TDD is, in the lack of a better word, strange. When Kent Beck explains how he invented TDD, he claims: «If an idea is good, and turn out to be true, somebody else will have done it; but, if an idea is stupid, you have a chance that nobody else is dumb enough to try it, then, if it happens to work, you really have something.» He literally describes TDD as a stupid idea.
Kent Beck is right. Writing the test before the code does not make sense. And it feels really stupid: why do we have to write a test that we know that will fail? Yet, it turned out to be probably one of the best ideas about software engineering.
Let’s be clear. Nowadays, TDD is a controversial topic to discuss. There are many people, like me, that think that TDD is one of the best practices, but at the same time, there are many more people who see TDD, and generally testing, as a waste of…
