April Fools 2014: The *Real* Test Driven Development (2014) • Hacker News Board

April Fools 2014: The Real Test Driven Development (2014)

#1

Post by omot » Wed, Aug 13, 2025, 5:46 PM UTC

April Fools 2014: The *Real* Test Driven Development (2014)
testing.googleblog.com

Re: April Fools 2014: The Real Test Driven Development (2014)

#2

Post by Kuraj » Wed, Aug 13, 2025, 6:15 PM UTC

If I didn't read past the concept and the date I would've accepted it as real without a blink of an eye

Re: April Fools 2014: The Real Test Driven Development (2014)

#3

Post by GranPC » Wed, Aug 13, 2025, 6:17 PM UTC

> We will offer a free (rate-limited) service that everyone can use, once we have sorted out the legal issues regarding the possibility of mixing code snippets originating from open-source projects with different licenses (e.g., GPL-licensed tests will simply refuse to pass BSD-licensed code snippets).

Well, looks like they sorted em out!

Re: April Fools 2014: The Real Test Driven Development (2014)

#4

Post by seanmcdirmid » Wed, Aug 13, 2025, 6:24 PM UTC

We aren't really far off from that, perhaps.

Re: April Fools 2014: The Real Test Driven Development (2014)

#5

Post by hinkley » Wed, Aug 13, 2025, 6:36 PM UTC

Kuraj wrote: post #2

If I didn't read past the concept and the date I would've accepted it as real without a blink of an eye

It probably could though. Or at least to the extent that declarative languages ever really work for real world problems.

But iif you perfected it then it would also be the thing that actually kills software development. Because if I told you your whole job is now writing tests, you’d find another job.

Re: April Fools 2014: The Real Test Driven Development (2014)

#6

Post by jessekv » Wed, Aug 13, 2025, 6:48 PM UTC

> We once saw a comment in the generated code that said "I need some coffee".

Re: April Fools 2014: The Real Test Driven Development (2014)

#7

Post by hnuser123456 » Wed, Aug 13, 2025, 6:50 PM UTC

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #4

We aren't really far off from that, perhaps.

We're beyond that, now we can vibecode both the tests and the implementation.

Re: April Fools 2014: The Real Test Driven Development (2014)

#8

Post by siva7 » Wed, Aug 13, 2025, 6:58 PM UTC

GranPC wrote: post #3

> We will offer a free (rate-limited) service that everyone can use, once we have sorted out the legal issues regarding the possibility of mixing code snippets originating from open-source projects with different licenses (e.g., GPL-licensed tests will simply refuse to pass BSD-licensed code snippets). Well, looks like they sorted em out!

> We are pleased to announce the Real TDD, our latest innovation in the Program Synthesis field, where you write only the tests and have the computer write the code for you!

Boy would they only know 10 years later you don't even need to write tests anymore. Must feel like Sci-fi timeline if you warped one of these blog authors into our future

Re: April Fools 2014: The Real Test Driven Development (2014)

#9

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Aug 13, 2025, 7:02 PM UTC

[deleted]

Re: April Fools 2014: The Real Test Driven Development (2014)

#10

Post by nemomarx » Wed, Aug 13, 2025, 7:06 PM UTC

hinkley wrote: post #5

Kuraj wrote: post #2

If I didn't read past the concept and the date I would've accepted it as real without a blink of an eye

It probably could though. Or at least to the extent that declarative languages ever really work for real world problems. But iif you perfected it then it would also be the thing that actually kills software development. Because if I told you your whole job is now writing tests, you’d find another job.

Isn't this project management, kinda? writing requirements and acceptance criteria and broad designs to hand off to a dev