Test-Driven Development with Python

Preface

This book is my attempt to share with the world the journey I’ve taken from “hacking” to “software engineering”. It’s mainly about testing, but there’s a lot more to it, as you’ll soon see.

I want to thank you for reading it.

If you bought a copy, then I’m very grateful. If you’re reading the free online version, then I’m still grateful that you’ve decided it’s worth spending some of your time on. Who knows, perhaps once you get to the end, you’ll decide it’s good enough to buy a real copy for yourself or for a friend.

If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions, I’d love to hear from you. You can reach me directly via [e-mail], or on Twitter @hjwp. You can also check out the website and my blog, and there’s a mailing list.

I hope you’ll enjoy reading this book as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Why I Wrote a Book About Test-Driven Development

“Who are you, why are you writing this book, and why should I read it?” I hear you ask.

I’m still quite early on in my programming career. They say that in any discipline, you go from apprentice, to journeyman, and eventually, sometimes, on to master. I’d say that I’m—at best—a journeyman programmer. But I was lucky enough, early on in my career, to fall in with a bunch of TDD fanatics, and it made such a big impact on my programming that I’m burning to share it with everyone. You might say I have the enthusiasm of a recent convert, and the learning experience is still a recent memory for me, so I hope I can still ...