On Monday 12 May 2008 16.23.46 Bram wrote: > Then what happens if it starts returning 4? > Then the test script will report a FAIL, and users will/might start > ignoring failures. > Which is a bad thing (IMHO). > > The todo test indicates that something doesn't behave as it should. > If it suddenly starts returning another value, which is still just as > wrong, then it shouldn't result in FAIL. > > Incorrect? Yes > Not expected? Yes > Fail? No since that particular code is known to misbehave (in what way > it misbehaves can (and will) change over time). > > > In the particular test foo() could get altered in quite a lot of ways > without realizing that it also affects the behavior of foo(). > > This could be a good change (< 3) or a bad one (> 3) but bottom line > it means that things changed that weren't expected and that, most > likely, means that there are tests missing to cover all the behavior > of the change. Mixing normal test with test for failure that shouldn't (isn't that a strange test to start with) change is asking for troubles.
Leave your todo test as it was to start with. Create a new test file "development_values_that_shoulnot_change.t" in your developer test directory (that's not just for pod right). This setup will not surprise your users and you have the test you want. Nadim.