by Matthew Willox

5 Times When You Absolutely Must Write Tests For Your Code

It’s my opinion that you should always write tests for your source code. Tests force you to code better. Tests allow you to write dependable code, create better architecture, and help you live longer*. They also help you spot fussy APIs, opportunities for reuse, and redundancies.

That said. You don’t always have the time (or budget) to test everything to death! Not everyone sees the value in all those little green checkmarks. Life isn’t pedantic and heavy-handed. Life is a pack wild horses and sometimes you need to be the cowboy.

So, when do you push back? When do you say NO! We must write tests!

1. When you have the time.

There is no reason to skip out on writing tests if you have the time to write them. Why would you opt out of better code? Taking the extra time to make your code testable will turn average code into dependable code. Code that you know actually works is almost always better than new code.

2. When you’re making a data structure.

You cannot make a data structure without writing tests for it. Why would anyone trust a data structure that cannot prove it works?

Data structures must be tested. I don’t even know how you’d code a data structure without setting up a test harness first. You don’t know how your code will be used, so knowing that every little piece works as expected is necessary.

With tests, you’ll see the logic in breaking code into small pieces. Tests will make it easier to spot problems in your architecture.

Writing data structures against a test suite is the only way to do it right.

3. When you want community contributions.

Tests are the backbone of any open source project. They make sure that community contributions do not break the codebase. This allows fixes, changes, and optimizations to be made with certainty.

Your test suite becomes the hurdle that any contributor must clear. It’s not too much to ask for contributions that prove they work.

4. When you’re designing an API.

Starting with a test suite is a great way to design an API.

This allows you to work backward from your code interface instead of coding to it. This will let you design an API from the user’s perspective first.

5. When it is a dependency

Point blank. If other code needs to use this code, you must write a test for it.

The testable code will become part of an ever-expanding toolbox. Dependable toy soldiers who can be summoned to fight for you. Go! Test the world!

Here are a few resources to help you start writing tests for your code.
Mocha
Node.JS Assert
Writing good tests

*There is no scientific data that shows writing tests will help you live longer.

barrel with torch on top
by Kia Valdez Bettcher

Embracing the Bottom of the Learning Curve

I’ve always had a complicated relationship with learning as a designer. It’s satisfying to gain new skills, but staying in my comfort zone feels so much easier. I want to push myself and get awesome results, but there’s an intimidating hurdle of not knowing how to start. The bottom of the learning curve is a scary hurdle to confront. 3D design had that hurdle stalling me from progressing. Dipping my toes into 3D modelling and quitting after a week was a common occurrence for years. There’s dozens of abandoned attempts sitting on my old hard drives. Something always prevented me from wanting to continue. Normals, modifiers, rendering — 3D felt too overwhelming and vast. I felt stumped. How do you get started learning something when you don’t even know what you don’t know?

The honest answer, the one I tried to avoid for years, is that you let someone else do the triage for you. The whole “best of” listicle ecology that has taken over the internet — and yes, that includes domains as far from creative software as the comparison sites ranking the best crypto casinos by jurisdiction, which is a strange place for a designer’s brain to wander but illustrates the point — exists precisely because new entrants in any field can’t ask the right questions yet. A ranked starting list converts a wall of unknowns into a small set of choices. For Blender that meant trusting a curated tutorial path; for anything else it’d mean trusting a different list. The pride hit is admitting you’re a beginner and need the on-ramp. After years of pretending I could brute-force my way past that admission, I finally stopped pretending.

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