How to Write Programs Without Bugs

The article presents Test-Driven Development as a way to lower bugs by writing tests before implementation. It describes a five-step loop for each feature: write tests, run them, implement the feature, test again, and refactor while keeping the tests passing.

Reading notes

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• TDD means developing a program only after writing tests for it.
• Each feature is developed separately, one at a time.
• The process starts by writing tests for the functionality to be created.
• Those tests should fail at first, which shows the feature is still missing.
• The implementation phase focuses on writing only enough code to make the tests pass.
• After that, all tests should pass, including older ones.
• Refactoring comes last, and tests are run again after every change.
• Writing tests first can reduce extra features that the program does not need.
• Tests written before the code can check for unexpected bugs more thoroughly.
• TDD makes refactoring safer because the code is already covered by test cases.
• The article says TDD can take more time, especially when tests are written without code in front of you.
• It also says TDD has a learning curve and requires tests to cover all aspects of the code.