[Zope3-dev] Re: The bug fixing problem

[Martijn Faassen]

Jim Fulton wrote:
[snip]
>> I would say that there are two bugs in the case you are describing:  the
>> one you meant to fix and the one which is the lack of any tests for the
>> module / class / whatever.  I would bet that spending your thirty
>> minutes adding minimal tests to such a module is a *higher* value
>> activity than fixing most bugs, because it makes it easier for you (or
>> someone else) to fix that bug and others in that module.
> 
> Good point.

The PyPy project actually works with many tests that are not working. 
They have an infrastructure where such tests can be in the code and 
explicitly disabled.

In some cases, the bug-reporter may be able to write a test and not fix 
it. Or, alternatively, the person who goes and tries to fix a bug can 
write tests but doesn't have time to fix them.

In such case it would be nice to be able to add tests that are 
explicitly disabled and thus does not show up in the normal test run. 
Only when turning a knob these buggy tests show up, and a bug fixer can 
then easily go and try to fix them.

One danger is that this can be used to temporarily disable tests that 
*used to work*. Then again, that's not hard to do now either.

Regards,

Martijn