Coding, Philosophy and philosophy of coding
After having seen how to test in R.
Let’s see how to do the same in Python:
A good practice demands that we should try to write our test before we code the program we intended to.
Or at least, try to write the code in a way that is easier to test in the future.
Fighting our natural tendency to write the code you desperately want to write and then the tests.
To do that, follow these guidelines:
To test a given function in R, I use the package ‘testthat’.
A very nice intro to the package is present here: https://journal.r-project.org/archive/2011/RJ-2011-002/RJ-2011-002.pdf
However, in order to write good quality code and to do it only once, you got to carry out a paradigm shift in your writing procedure:
You might have the natural tendency to write the tests after your code.
However, this is not the best approach, indeed, after that, you might need to rewrite big part of the code, to make it more ‘testable’.
In order to avoid that, you need to write your test before the program.
Certainly, this is is a bit harder to implement, especially the first times.
Therefore, to make it easier, follow these guidelines:
