pseudo-TDD - Paul Ganssle

Episode 174 · December 22nd, 2021 · 39 mins 24 secs

About this Episode

In this episode, I talk with Paul Ganssle about a fun workflow that he calls pseudo-TDD.
Pseudo-TDD is a way to keep your commit history clean and your tests passing with each commit.
This workflow includes using pytest xfail and some semi-advanced version control features.

Some strict forms of TDD include something like this:

  • write a failing test that demonstrates a lacking feature or defect
  • write the source code to get the test to pass
  • refactor if necessary
  • repeat

In reality, at least for me, the software development process is way more messy than this, and not so smooth and linear.

Pauls workflow allow you to develop non-linearly, but commit cleanly.

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