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What is going on right now?

(catskull.net)
378 points todsacerdoti | 1 comments | 22 Aug 25 07:08 UTC | HN request time: 0.295s | source
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mensetmanusman ◴[22 Aug 25 13:18 UTC] No.44984308[source]▶
Not being a programmer, I have a question.

Can any program be broken down into functions and functions of functions that have inputs and outputs so that they can be verified if they are working?

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1. chasd00 ◴[22 Aug 25 18:56 UTC] No.44988388[source]▶
What you're describing is basically perfect unit testing. There was even a trend called TDD ( test driven development ) that tried to make the tests the driving force behind building the software in the first place. It works but it has to be perfect and, inevitably, your tests need testing and so you're back to square one. Regardless, it's tedious and time consuming and shortcuts get taken then value of the whole thing falls apart and running the unit tests just becomes like a ritual with no real meaning/impact.