Code Complete, 2nd Edition by Steve McConnell

I received my copy of Code Complete 2nd Edition today and immediately started reading. I really have things to do, like my job,  but I have been waiting for my copy and I wanted to read it.

I was paging through the table of contents and saw Chapter 22 - Developer Testing so I went to that chapter. In the chapter McConnell discusses various types of testing done by developers. I wanted to point out a few sections which I believe are pertinent to TDD.

In the Key Points at the end of the chapter (Page 533) McConnell states:

• Testing by the developer is a key part of a full testing strategy.
• Writing test cases before the code takes the same amount of time and effort as writing test cases after the code, but it shortens defect-detection-debug-correction cycles.

Lastly, in a quote from Page 504,  “All in all, I think test-first programming is one of the most beneficial software practices to emerge during the past decade and is a good general approach. But it isn't a testing panacea, because it is subject to the general limations of developer testing.“

As you might imagine, I happen to agree entirely.

I am enjoying what I have read so far and after I finish the book I will write up a review.

Comments

• Anonymous
  August 01, 2004
  What do you think of this so far? Other than it is one thick book. I did not realize how much things have changed since Code Complete was first published.
  
  Good read overall...
• Anonymous
  August 02, 2004
  I have been on vacation for the past couple of weeks. I am just now catching up. My review will be a couple of weeks out.
• Anonymous
  February 04, 2005
  The comment has been removed