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Ask HN: TDD Resources for beginners?

5 points by asher_ ↗ HN
I am eager to dive into the world of TDD (I am primarily a JS/PHP developer). I have read about various frameworks for unit and integration testing but still feel like I am missing something.

The biggest question I have is exactly what the scope of the tests should be. I don't want to test too little, because that would largely defeat the purpose, but also don't want to test every conceivable thing. Are there best practices for knowing where to draw the line or resources out there that will point me in the right direction?

2 comments

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swanson
James Shore's Lets Play TDD (http://www.jamesshore.com/Blog/Lets-Play) is an excellent video series that has the perfect pace and level of depth for a beginner. James Shore is also doing a Javascript series (it was a kickstart project, http://www.letscodejavascript.com/)

Specifically regarding your question of knowing where to draw the line, there is never going to be definitive answer. That is one of those questions that changes frequently based on your specific project and codebase, but overtime you get a sense of where those lines generally are.

My advice would be to watch the first few videos, then start trying to do TDD on a small project.

countessa
neat - never seen those before - thanks.