When something small is removed for a good reason (e.g. it causes a bug) I sometimes find it necessary to test that it is not there. This is especially important in a case where most programmers might look at a line of code and think "Hmm, I should add x to this method in order to make it work" but in fact x causes a weird production bug.
M On Thu, Jul 16, 2009 at 10:35 AM, Stephen Eley <sfe...@gmail.com> wrote: > On Wed, Jul 15, 2009 at 6:03 PM, Adam Anderson<adamanderso...@gmail.com> > wrote: > > Sometimes when features are asked to be removed it doesn't make sense to > > specify that they shouldn't be there. It seems to me that removing > something > > from a tested app should not entail writing a failing spec for that > change. > > I'm curious if people have different opinions or insights on this. > > I'd think about the following: > > * Is the *absence* of the feature a new functional requirement? > > * Would the existence of the feature after it's not supposed to be > there any more have an impact on users or other stakeholders? > > * Is removing the feature likely to be problematic for any reason? > > * Is it at all possible that the way you deploy code could cause the > feature -- or part of the feature -- to be there when it shouldn't be? > (This is usually a "yes." Even if you're doing an online app with > cookie-cutter Git and Capistrano deployment, someone could forget to > merge the right branch, or leave "drop table" migrations dangling, or > whatever.) > > You want to spec things that matter. If it *matters* that something > goes away in a predictable manner, and there's any possibility that it > might not, it's probably worthwhile to write specs for it. If the > reason you're removing it is just because no one's using it and no one > cares... *shrug* Then you're not obliged to care more than anybody > else does. >8-> > > > -- > Have Fun, > Steve Eley (sfe...@gmail.com) > ESCAPE POD - The Science Fiction Podcast Magazine > http://www.escapepod.org > _______________________________________________ > rspec-users mailing list > rspec-users@rubyforge.org > http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/rspec-users >
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