Re: [Junitdoclet-users] exception handling patch (bugfix)

[<ste...@ob...>]

Hi Nicola,

> first of all, the patch sent out yesterday had a pretty dumb bug, which
> this patch solves.

Relax. 

Think.

Did you check your patch this time?




Really? 




The update frequency of JUnitDoclet is not as high as 
in other projects, but there is good news in that:

  Don't touch a running system (if it's not nessecary).

Well, actually some users sent me suggestions to
improve JUnitDoclet. That is highly welcome and their
contributions will be in the next release. I love that.

What I don't enjoy in that much detail is a stream of 
untested patches, that make our software appear 
unstable. To be forced to react on this issue takes 
away time from developing the tool. (I admit, in the 
last few months I've been busy with other topics, but 
now some of my time is for JUnitDoclet again. So 
the statement is true.)

Before we release a new version we run a lot of tests.
(Testing before the user does, isn't JUnit all about that?)
There is always a chance for one more bug, but we do 
a lot to make it a small chance.
Please, at least try the same with anything you release.
 
With respect to the goal you try to achive:
Is testing an exception really worth complicating any 
tool? How often is it used in good programs? In my 
opinion exceptions should be used only in exceptional 
cases. So there is very little of them. Right?

Don't test RuntimeExceptions if you don't throw them 
(and you should't throw them) ! 
Just one example: There are so many ways you can 
run out of memory... you test for that with other tools, 
better suited for that purpose.

One major design goal of JUnitDoclet is:
  predictable behaviour

This means: It is better to do nothing and point to the 
missing part, than doing something which is sometimes 
wrong.

IMHO there is not only "not enough testing" there is 
also a "to much test code" when the real tests get 
hidden behind a cloud of meaningless, generated code.
Actually that is what some of the other test geneators 
do: They claim to think on behalf of the developer and 
produce nice, compilable clouds.

JUnitDoclet meight generate some kind of tests for non
RuntimeExceptions in the future but not now. As our
software develops in iteratations, there are features 
that are much more important. Those will even serve as 
a better foundation for testing exceptions by preventing 
clouding the tests. I hope you will agree when the next 
release is out, even if exceptions are not adressed.


This email is not ment as an offense. You like our tool,
you use it, you spent time to add something which 
seems usefull to you. You even shared your idea.
That is Open Source. Thank you.

All I ask is a little bit more testing before someone sends
out a message like you did. If someone has an idea to 
improve our tool, please send an email to 
jun...@ob.... We'll be more than happy to 
discuss that. And if it seems usefull to us too, it may 
even make it into the next release (as do other user 
suggestions like configurations for indent levels and 
accessor prefixes). 
 
Keep on testing.

Regards,

Steffen Gemkow
--
ObjectFab GmbH
ste...@ob...