A question on PM about code correction elicited the reply of "Rather than stealth code fixes, write good test cases that expose the bug."
Of course -- it's the time-honored process of a koan. A question is asked or a situation presented, where the error becomes obvious and enlightenment, if sought, is nearly unavoidable.
Misunderstandings
brian_d_foy on 2004-09-12T19:41:07
It's too bad that many people mis-intrepreted the point of that post. It wasn't so much about doing things without anyone else knowing (it mentions CVS, for instance), but not leaving multiple styles of coding in a source file.
A lot of responders over-reacted, I think, because they hold onto some notion of code ownership or territoriality. That's not always the case when you have to work in a team and you might have to fix something yourself.
Writing tests to motivate a bug fix is good, but not a rebuttal to the original post.
