On Thu, Jul 23, 2009 at 11:07 AM, dan nessett<dness...@yahoo.com> wrote: [snip] > On the other hand, if there were regression tests for the main code and for > the most important extensions, I could make the change, run the regression > tests and see if any break. If some do, I could focus my attention on those > problems. I would not have to find every place the global is referenced and > see if the change adversely affects the logic.
This only holds if the regression test would fail as a result of the change. This is far from a given for many changes and many common tests. Not to mention the practical complications— many extensions have complicated configuration and/or external dependencies. "make test_all_extensions" is not especially realistic. Automated tests are good, necessary even, but they don't relieve you of the burden of directly evaluating the impact of a broad change. _______________________________________________ Wikitech-l mailing list Wikitech-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-l