Change of Perspective needed?
Posted: Thu Aug 18, 2005 9:34 pm
OK I've developed a few new features using TDD; I've wrapped some legacy functionality with acceptance tests while bug fixing. But I still don't "get it". I'm trying to tackle a few new features, before I switch into refactoring mode on the legacy code. But I can't seem to figure out how to get to the first test.
These three features are all of the form "Gather Some Data from the User (Validate/Re-Gather if needed); Generate a Report". I could probably tackle the "Generate a Report" portion via mocking, so maybe that's what I should do.
I think to some degree my "problem" is that I still don't understand how TDD and UI interact. I'm used to
- Developing the forrm
- Building up the cleansing/validation/force re-submit
- Processsing the Form
- Generating after action report/options/status
normally in that order. TDD seems to ignore the first step, which kinda leaves me dangling over a chasm not knowing where to start.
I can kinda see the Handler example McGruff illustrated in my Funny Experience thread partially addressing the second step (coupled with the input controller), but seeing how I don't have the infrastructure for the Handlers nor an Input Controller yet I can't quite get there.
Perhaps I need to take a step back from working on addding features to the legacy application and start growing a more complete OOP framework first? Is there some other perspective that might help me find a starting test?
Thanks
These three features are all of the form "Gather Some Data from the User (Validate/Re-Gather if needed); Generate a Report". I could probably tackle the "Generate a Report" portion via mocking, so maybe that's what I should do.
I think to some degree my "problem" is that I still don't understand how TDD and UI interact. I'm used to
- Developing the forrm
- Building up the cleansing/validation/force re-submit
- Processsing the Form
- Generating after action report/options/status
normally in that order. TDD seems to ignore the first step, which kinda leaves me dangling over a chasm not knowing where to start.
I can kinda see the Handler example McGruff illustrated in my Funny Experience thread partially addressing the second step (coupled with the input controller), but seeing how I don't have the infrastructure for the Handlers nor an Input Controller yet I can't quite get there.
Perhaps I need to take a step back from working on addding features to the legacy application and start growing a more complete OOP framework first? Is there some other perspective that might help me find a starting test?
Thanks