Getting Clojure

Staying Out of Trouble

So which is better, traditional unit tests or generative tests? The answer is simple: yes. Both traditional tests and their generative cousins have strengths and weaknesses. And both have a place in making sure your code is doing what it is supposed to be doing.

Traditional unit tests do have one huge advantage: they are shatteringly obvious. Does it work when I do this? Yes. Does it work when I do that? Yes. OK, then we’re good. So, if we were trying to test this simple function:

test/trouble_one.clj

(defn f [a b] (/ a b))

we might write this test:

(deftest test-f
  (is (= 1/2 (f 1 2)))
  (is (= 1/2 (f 3 6)))
  (is (= 1 (f 10 10))))

And we know that for these specific instances, it works. The drawback of this kind ...