[plt-scheme] testing modules

At 9:15 AM -0400 6/6/06, Matthias Felleisen wrote:
>I can easily imagine teaching that
>
>  (= (f 10) 11)
>
>should really read
>
>  (check = (f x) 11)
>
>which should really read
>
>  (test-equal = (f x) 11)
>
>and so on. I can't imagine doing this in a course that starts with 
>writeln("hello world").

I'm always amazed when students who haven't started with a 
testing-heavy methodology like HtDP or XP come into my upper-level 
courses and turn in programs with MAYBE one test case (or more 
likely, just an interactive UI so I can type in my own and check the 
answers by eye).

Of course, the reason they only wrote one test case is because, to 
run more than one test case, they would need to copy and paste the 
whole program again, because they didn't break it down into 
parameterized functions that return results.  Which they didn't do 
because they weren't thinking about testing from the beginning.

-- 
							Stephen Bloch
							Math/CS Dept
 
Adelphi University
 
sbloch at adelphi.edu