Java By Comparison

Test your code, or your users will.

Dave Thomas and Andrew Hunt

Chapter 6Assert Things Going Right

To err is human. Or to put it differently, we all make mistakes. No matter how brilliant, how well educated, or how experienced you are, you’re still going to write buggy code now and then. NASA’s own bugs made its Mars robots land too hard, and its rockets accelerated too fast during takeoff. Pac-Man ended at a kill screen at level 256. And some really terrible software errors have hurt or even killed people—for example, an X-ray machine that emitted too much radiation.

Of course you’re going to try to make your software as bug-free as possible. And testing is one technique you’ll use for finding flaws. It’s not perfect—no amount of testing ...