Is Test Driven Development good for a starter? [closed]

Answer 1

It really depends on your definition of a "starter". If by "starter" you mean someone with absolutely no programming background, then no, I don't think TDD is a very good way to start out. A programmer needs to learn the basics (avoiding infinite loops, memory allocation, etc.) before worrying about refactoring and test driven development.

Answer 2

TDD is meant to be simpler than the "traditional" method (of not testing it till the end) - because the tests clarify what you understand of the problem. If you actually didn't have a clear idea of what the problem was, writing tests is quite hard.

So for a beginner, writing tests gets the thinking juice going in the right direction, which is contractual behaviour, not implementation behaviour.

Answer 3

I think this comment illustrates that it can be a very good thing for beginners to learn straight up.

Answer 4

Experiencing TDD Rules All

I also think that ideally TDD would be very helpful in the early stages of learning. In hindsight I know it would of helped me approach the problems in a completely different light.

What I'm perplexed about is that when one is learning, there are so many new concepts being absorbed that confusion can start to set in very early. Therefore, while I do think TDD would be super helpful, I don't think it can be something that's learned successfully by one's self.

Just like anything else in life we tend to learn best when somebody is physically teaching us. Showing us how they approach the problems in a TDD manner can do so much more than reading about it in books or on the web. I mean, this can't hurt but it's not a substitute for a mentor that can truly show you the ropes.

Experiencing TDD is everything so if you can have somebody teach you how to TDD during those early stages, I think learning as a whole would be accelerated beyond what anyone would expect.

Answer 5

def self.learn_tdd_and_programming_together?
  if you_have_tdd_mentor_sitting_next_to_you?
    "go for it"
  else
    if language.ruby?
      "it's possible, there is quite a bit of good stuff out 
      there that could give you a chance of learning programming 
      with TDD from the start. It's sort of in the ruby culture"
    elsif language.dot_net?
      "learn TDD after you learn the basics of .NET"  
    end
  end
end

Answer 6

code is code whether it is the thing you're trying to spike out, or a test.

Learning TDD at the very beginning has a lot of value. It's one of those skills that should be a habit. There are a lot of us out there that understand and like the value of tdd but years of programming have instilled some some habits that can be hard to break later on.

As far as TDD being for contract design/code implementation/testing it's all of those things. Will TDD bring you to the perfect code? No, experience and studying the craft will help you mature your coding approaches. But TDD is a very important tool for every developer.

The use of TDD will hopefully help bring you to a design that is testable. And a design that is testable is in theory well encapsulated and should adhere to the open closed principal.

In my opinion as long as people view TDD as something that's a niche tool or is somehow optional while writing code, those people obviously don't get the value of TDD.