* * * * *
                                        
                  Ah, so that's the definition of a unit test
                                        
> Originally, the term “unit” in “unit test” referred not to the system under
> test but to the test itself. This implies that the test can be executed as
> one unit and does not rely on other tests running upfront (see here [1] and
> here [2]).
> 

Via The big TDD misunderstanding (2022) | Hacker News [3], “The Big TDD
Misunderstanding. 💡Originally, the term “unit” in “unit… | by Oliver Wolf |
Mediu [4]” (also via Lobste.rs [5])

I think I finally have the answer to my question, “what is a ‘unit test?’
[6]” and … wow! And to think I was doing that all along at The Enterprise.

When I wrote the regression tests, I set each test up to be independent—each
test got its own unique test data in the various “databases” we were using
(we weren't really using a database, but custom binary data files based off a
periodic database dump) and in theory, we could have run the tests in random
order. In fact, during my last year there, I almost added that feature to the
regression test, but by then, I was so burned out with The Process™ [7] that
I just never bothered. It's a shame that, because I think it would have been
an interesting form of test to perform.

[1] https://medium.com/r?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftanzu.vmware.com%2Fcontent%2Fblog%2Fwhat-is-a-unit-test-the-answer-might-surprise-you
[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNjlJpuA5kQ
[3] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38330989
[4] https://linkedrecords.com/the-big-tdd-misunderstanding-8e22c2f1fc21
[5] https://lobste.rs/s/clfulh/big_tdd_misunderstanding_2022
[6] gopher://gopher.conman.org/0Phlog:2022/10/08.1
[7] gopher://gopher.conman.org/0Phlog:2022/02/11.1

Email author at sean@conman.org

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