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My use of tests is situational.

If I'm writing security-sensitive string parsing code that isn't going to change much, I'm going to write a thorough set of unit tests.

When I wrote database abstraction layer that ran on MySQL, PostgreSQL, Microsoft SQL Server and Oracle, I found that a good set of tests made the process of porting the system to a new database almost trivial.

Back when I was getting my PhD, I rewrote a simple-but-slow calculation to use a fast-but-complicated-as-hell algorithm, and I don't think it would have been possible (to get the right answer) if I hadn't used the simple code to create unit tests for the complicated code.

On the other hand, there are a lot of cases where I've written unit tests and they've become a liability over time; for instance, requirements would change, so I'd have to go back and maintain this collection of tests that, frankly, I didn't care about anymore.




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