These types of posts come up every so often, and I don't really understand why. Sure, the main point is valid (for some people). I just don't understand the vitriol behind the Author's post. So what if someone thinks TDD is the bees-knees? So what if they think less of YOU because you don't drink the same kool-aide?
The author won't convince any TDD disciples to change their ways by attacking them. A reasoned post that objectively weights the pros and cons might. But even if the author could affect change, is it really the case that no-one ever would benefit from TDD? It might certainly be used as a crutch by some developers, but if it helps them develop better software, what's the harm? That's their issue to deal with, not anyone else's.
The goal is to write good programs. There's many paths there, and TDD, anti-TDD or part time testing whenever you feel like it all are viable. If TDD can help abstract away a level of thought with regards to testing, and helps speed up the process and helps someone write better code, then that's great.
I appreciate the article may be a little polemic for some tastes, but you know, I have often had my mind changed in this way before. I've read something deliberately somewhat provocative, which enraged me briefly, but got me thinking, and a week later, I realized had gotten me thinking enough that I'd started to come around to a different perspective.
Thanks for the feedback. The next article planned is a detailed discussion of how to retro-fit an automated test-suite to a web-app that doesn't already have one.
You're light on actual counter-examples and heavy on words like "shills", "hocus", "criminal", and "idiocy", so that most of your argument has to rely on your ability to paint TDDers as stupid or evil. The vast majority of thinking people will be unmoved by that.
The author won't convince any TDD disciples to change their ways by attacking them. A reasoned post that objectively weights the pros and cons might. But even if the author could affect change, is it really the case that no-one ever would benefit from TDD? It might certainly be used as a crutch by some developers, but if it helps them develop better software, what's the harm? That's their issue to deal with, not anyone else's.
The goal is to write good programs. There's many paths there, and TDD, anti-TDD or part time testing whenever you feel like it all are viable. If TDD can help abstract away a level of thought with regards to testing, and helps speed up the process and helps someone write better code, then that's great.