[Swan-dev] test failures (a rant)

[D. Hugh Redelmeier]

We have a lot of test failures.
Most are innocent: due log files made obsoletee by code changes.

This kind of thing should be eliminated: it makes using the tests much 
harder for everyone else.

It is understandable that this happens once in a while.  But these 
divergences must be fixed ASAP.  We seem to let them drag on for a long 
time.

Ideally, one should check in test log updates with the code change that 
causes them.  Of course one should be careful: we don't want to bless a 
bug.  Part of making a change is being sure that the new log is correct.  
Before checking it in.

I too often check in changes without testing.  That's because testing is 
so unwieldy.  This is a circular problem: test failures that I might have 
caused get lost in the noise of endemic failure.

Testing matters.  Let's make it great again.