Test Driven Heroism

I tried to use TestDrivenDevelopment to build a MicrosoftAccess project once. I had to give up because of all the "conveniences". It would seem that a high-end application framework, with a built-in editor and debugger support for Debug.Assert, would make TDD easy. However, each time I tried to write an assertion that queried the program state, or tried to SimulateUserInteraction?, Access would try to "help" by throwing an error message, claiming my application was not in the right mode.

For example, I could not query the value of a field unless Access had rendered that field into a window, visible to the user. This directly contradicts the ProductionCode goal of building a form during a Create event, before its first Paint. But if Access's design goal is to lead naive users into programming, that goal thwarts professional software engineers who naively attempt to write tests!

Any more stories here? Has anyone tried to TDD, for example, LotusNotes?

Microsoft development tools tend to follow a certain philosophy that is more or less: "Design and develop our way and life will be smooth and simple. Deviate from this and we will give you hurdles and headaches." --top

CategoryMicrosoft