ESSENTIALS - Canon Test-Driven Development
summary
Argues for a stripped-down, precise TDD workflow: list the concrete scenarios then tests, write one failing test for a behavior (stack example: one test up front), make it pass quickly, then generalize and refactor — red then green then refactor. Traces origins to Smalltalk/JUnit, demonstrates variants like test‑commit‑revert and using tests to tame nondeterministic “genies,” shows practice on a rope and a B+ tree, and says property testing is useful but harder during the discovery phase.
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chapters (13)
- 0:00Introduction
- 1:05Why revisit Test-Driven Development
- 3:36Canon TDD workflow
- 5:00TDD from first principles
- 8:34Interspersing code and tests
- 13:53Three test decisions
- 17:50Writing tests first
- 25:32Test timing economics
- 29:08Canon TDD two-step
- 33:06Passing and generalizing
- 37:43Test commit revert
- 39:07Following Canon TDD
- 40:56Q&A
