Open letter @ignored test
Dear developer!
I want to talk to you for a long time, but words are not always easy to say. We had a great time together. I still remember the first time when I warned you about a minor error in the code, and how glad you were that I am in your life! Do you remember that? I also remember how you first refactored me to make me more efficient, and how well written I felt after that ... ah, wonderful times!
I owe you everything, I know. And I am grateful for that. I would not be if it were not for you. You thought that I was needed, so you created me, and from that moment I serve you, rejoicing in it, because you gave me meaning. I want to catch bugs for you. I want to instill in you the confidence that things will continue to work after your changes. I want to make your life easier, and you know that I can do all these things - I'm sure you know.
')
But then I began to fall inexplicably from time to time, for no apparent reason. Something broke a little in me. I continued to function almost normally, but I couldn’t do anything with the fact that sometimes I became the cause of the red assemblies, it was just not in my power. I became ... unstable. My instability upset you, and I'm not mad at you for that, because she upset me too. I have ceased to be reliable. I lost my meaning. I have to say that now I’m bitterly remembered by your reaction after several weeks of my instability: instead of investing a little love and spending a couple of hours fixing me and bringing me to good condition, you marked me as @ignore and threw it into a huge deserted pile of code.
My instructions and statements shed tears when I think about it. For an automatic test to be unstable is bad, but at least sometimes I was successful, and my falls served as a reminder that I need your magic; but to be ignored, my friend ... it's just horrible. If there is a hell for automated tests, then it certainly lies in the mark of @ignore and oblivion when you become surrounded by successful green tests and you cannot join them when you watch the assemblies pass by and do not launch you when you sit among endless lines code, hopelessly waiting for edits, which you so need, and which you do not get ... I will never wish for this even on my swornest enemy tests.
Don't get me wrong, I realize that automated tests have their own life cycle, and that, ultimately, they are replaced by other automated tests - better and newer. Sometimes our instability cannot be fixed, and we need to be removed or replaced - and this is normal. Sometimes the code we are testing is simply out of date, so we lose our meaning - and this is also normal. That is our nature. But wait: I'm code too, you know? I need attention! I need to be implemented and refactor properly so that I still make sense! I need reviewing the code when you carefully look at me and notice the flaws that may be in me, because there are bugs in the tests! Watching only the functional code, and when forgotten tests begin to fall, marking them with @ignore and continuing as if nothing has happened is simply not fair. It's outrageous!
All I ask for is to decide something about me: either fix it or delete me, but don't forget about me! You break my instructions when you do it. People have problems with making decisions, as far as we, the lines of code, know, so if you want to achieve a green build and ignore me for several starts, then okay. Fair! But if you are not going to immediately go back and find out what’s wrong with me, and why I’ve recently become unstable, have a conscience: get the task in your bug tracker, then someone else can give me the attention I need to return to the system and again benefit. It's not that hard, is it? You are welcome. For all those green assemblies that we had with you ...
I sincerely hope that we will soon be able to overcome our differences.
Forever Yours,
I want to talk to you for a long time, but words are not always easy to say. We had a great time together. I still remember the first time when I warned you about a minor error in the code, and how glad you were that I am in your life! Do you remember that? I also remember how you first refactored me to make me more efficient, and how well written I felt after that ... ah, wonderful times!
I owe you everything, I know. And I am grateful for that. I would not be if it were not for you. You thought that I was needed, so you created me, and from that moment I serve you, rejoicing in it, because you gave me meaning. I want to catch bugs for you. I want to instill in you the confidence that things will continue to work after your changes. I want to make your life easier, and you know that I can do all these things - I'm sure you know.
')
But then I began to fall inexplicably from time to time, for no apparent reason. Something broke a little in me. I continued to function almost normally, but I couldn’t do anything with the fact that sometimes I became the cause of the red assemblies, it was just not in my power. I became ... unstable. My instability upset you, and I'm not mad at you for that, because she upset me too. I have ceased to be reliable. I lost my meaning. I have to say that now I’m bitterly remembered by your reaction after several weeks of my instability: instead of investing a little love and spending a couple of hours fixing me and bringing me to good condition, you marked me as @ignore and threw it into a huge deserted pile of code.
My instructions and statements shed tears when I think about it. For an automatic test to be unstable is bad, but at least sometimes I was successful, and my falls served as a reminder that I need your magic; but to be ignored, my friend ... it's just horrible. If there is a hell for automated tests, then it certainly lies in the mark of @ignore and oblivion when you become surrounded by successful green tests and you cannot join them when you watch the assemblies pass by and do not launch you when you sit among endless lines code, hopelessly waiting for edits, which you so need, and which you do not get ... I will never wish for this even on my swornest enemy tests.
Don't get me wrong, I realize that automated tests have their own life cycle, and that, ultimately, they are replaced by other automated tests - better and newer. Sometimes our instability cannot be fixed, and we need to be removed or replaced - and this is normal. Sometimes the code we are testing is simply out of date, so we lose our meaning - and this is also normal. That is our nature. But wait: I'm code too, you know? I need attention! I need to be implemented and refactor properly so that I still make sense! I need reviewing the code when you carefully look at me and notice the flaws that may be in me, because there are bugs in the tests! Watching only the functional code, and when forgotten tests begin to fall, marking them with @ignore and continuing as if nothing has happened is simply not fair. It's outrageous!
All I ask for is to decide something about me: either fix it or delete me, but don't forget about me! You break my instructions when you do it. People have problems with making decisions, as far as we, the lines of code, know, so if you want to achieve a green build and ignore me for several starts, then okay. Fair! But if you are not going to immediately go back and find out what’s wrong with me, and why I’ve recently become unstable, have a conscience: get the task in your bug tracker, then someone else can give me the attention I need to return to the system and again benefit. It's not that hard, is it? You are welcome. For all those green assemblies that we had with you ...
I sincerely hope that we will soon be able to overcome our differences.
Forever Yours,
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/277123/
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