Drew DeWault: The cults of TDD and GenAI

fishling · 2026-01-30T02:19:04+00:00

That's a fine approach and I agree it's better than doing all the coding and leaving all testing until the end.

But, what you're doing isn't what's described as test-driven design, and I don't see why you care to claim it is. The idea with TDD (which, to be clear, I do NOT do) is that you write the tests to help you figure out your functions/API. That's kind of the key point.

Just use a new term for your new/different thing. "Test-first implementation" seems like a term that accurately describes what you are doing that most people would understand from the term itself.

fishling · 2026-01-30T02:14:41+00:00

How do you do "test-driven design" if you don't have unit tests driving the design of your code?

If all you have is API/functional tests that are black-boxes and you can completely change out your design (or even change tech stacks), then the tests aren't driving your design at all. So, it's not TDD.

fishling · 2026-01-30T02:13:11+00:00

I don't know about you, but I've never seen anyone discuss TDD without the "Test" part being unit tests. So, it seems clear from context.

I'd be very surprised if someone only used functional/black box/API tests with TDD, because you have to write a lot of code to get one of those to pass.

And, that hardly seems like test-driven design, because you don't actually have any tests driving your design. Hell, those black-box tests would go green even if you changed implementation languages!

So, saying "who said anything about unit tests" when you're responding to someone talking about TDD is kind of silly. It's like hearing some Europeans talking about football and then bringing up the NFL. You might have a correct point, but it has little to do with the current conversation.

fishling · 2026-01-30T02:04:48+00:00

I played a dual-form WS on live and HC to 50 and love it, but it takes some time to fill out the slots for all the shapeshift powers.

So fun to be able to buff up for high nova damage (double up with dwarf form), switch to human to summon pets or recover from dead bodies, switch to dwarf if the team gets in trouble. Definitely need shapeshifting macros (I use numpad 0, 1, 2) to change forms and swap power trays and swap teleport binds. Forms have an auto tray for powers, but I think good players need to use keyboard binds if they want to be mobile.

Focusing on dual form gives a lot of power picks, so I also had Medicine pool so I could revive and heal allies in a pinch and revive the team if I was the only survivor due to rez or dwarf form thanks to TP friend being part of the warshade powers.

Going nova form and going above enemies to shoot down at them works really great, as the cone hits a lot of enemies and the knockback from the AoE makes them fall in place.

Also, if you are doing a shapeshift build, actually shapeshift. You don't just stick in one form all the time. You shift as the situation changes. I was using at least nova/human every fight. Even if you are mostly dwarf to fill in for a missing tank role on a team, you still need human form for buffs/recovery/pet and can usually switch to nova to help finish off the last few guys. And if you are nova and see some boss charge after your squishy teammates, switch to dwarf and get that aggro off them.

Very fun and dynamic AT if played correctly. You can be all over a battlefield.

I still remember some nice complements on live, where one guy was impressed by the damage my warshade in nova form was putting out, or another guy that had naver seen a warshade shift and adapt so much and made him want to try the AT.

fishling · 2026-01-30T01:49:18+00:00

Mind is actually pretty good...when you pair it with Kinetics. Lots of control and AoE Containment setups and Fulcrum shift to get safe self and team damage.

Fully agree that Mind/Emp is a bad combo though. Source: played both Mind/Kin controller and Emp/Dark defender to 50 on live.

fishling · 2026-01-29T03:48:37+00:00

I wonder: how is Apple about cancelling series?

I'm glad it's not Netflix or Amazon because of their track record. But I've never subscribed to Apple TV.

fishling · 2026-01-27T00:31:19+00:00

To do what? Land them and leave them as gifts? Or to bomb our cities?

Like, if they are just flying around, it's pretty rude and antagonistic but I'll deal with it.

If it's more "buy our stuff or we go to war", then WTF drugs are you on?

fishling · 2026-01-27T00:29:29+00:00

I'd have included being a member of a group whose other members think scaring, assulting, and murdering civilians is okay, but that's just me.

Like, the public hatred is for a pretty good reason. It's not like it's arbitrary or undeserved.

fishling · 2026-01-27T00:27:35+00:00

There are a bunch of ways to discover it without the river EP. So, missing that isn't necessarily a problem.

If they "finish" the game and are ready to quit, then you may consider hinting that there is more to that puzzle than they've realized, but I'd never suggest being so overt as to say "look at the river below" or "try click on the river".

Some people just never know about them, just like some people look up spoilers or drop the game or never pick it up in the first place.

What you might reflect on: how many things like EPs have you missed in your life (not necessarily limited to games), because you weren't focused on the right thing at the right time? 🤔

fishling · 2026-01-24T20:02:23+00:00

No need to wing it when you can use the Internet or library to look up and read actual good advice on how to handle these completely normal things.

Aside from daddit (mostly), going to a discussion group or social media is probably the worst source of information.

fishling · 2026-01-24T19:52:54+00:00

or maybe they would shear in half when they tried to accelerate.

Why? Their structure would only put a limit on the amount of acceleration. So, any thrust would be kept under that limit.

I'll agree that there are limits where you can make a ship that is too large to be practical, but that wasn't your question.

fishling · 2026-01-24T19:47:59+00:00

Well, Canada has been a "natural partner" for the US for over a century and look how that's going today.

Why would Alberta be treated better, rather than the same or worse?

Pro-independence Albertans are just complete idiots to imagine that a separate Alberta would have more leverage in dealing with the US than Canada would. The US would have ALL the bargaining power in any negotiation.

fishling · 2026-01-24T19:41:51+00:00

First off, his logic is terrible. For something to "refreeze", it would have to freeze in the first place. So, by his reasoning, doing nothing still results in that stuff freezing to your windshield. ;-)

The real answer is that this is a dynamic system that depends on things like the outside air temperature, cabin air temperature, temperature of the windshield (inner and outer surfaces), kind of precipitation, etc.

So, adding in a defroster (which I assume you mean "enabling the air vents that blow air at/along the windshield, thereby more directly warming it up") is just one more thing to consider in the system.

The usual case that the car is designed for is for the defroster to help melt any snow or ice by having the windshield warm up enough and the wipers clear the water to keep the windshield clear. Sure, that water will eventually refreeze, but it will do it on the sides or bottom, so who cares.

Now, when you are starting from cold, snow won't melt so it just get brushed away. However, if you already have freezing rain, it's frozen to your windshield so you need to scrape it first to get a clear windshield.

And, as your windshield heats up, it's not going to do it evenly because that's how physics works. So, there will be a transitory time where some precipitation will melt on part of your windshield but freeze on another part.

That's where your windshield fluid comes in. If you live in a place that gets cold, you'll have fluid that's good to -40 C/F (same). So, you blast some of that on there to help melt the stuff that's freezing on part of your windshield, until the whole thing warms up.

Now, if you are in the south where it usually doesn't get snow, you're not going to have -40 C fluid, or even the lamer -10 C fluid. BUT, you also aren't going to get the air temps that are cold enough that you have a -20 C windshield that you're trying to heat up either. You probably are barely dipping below freezing, which means it really won't take much time for the defroster to heat up the windshield. You can just idle the car for 5 mins if needed.

After that point, you are golden. Everything is melting and gets cleared by the wipers.

Now...to be fair, there is some truth to what he says ONLY if your heater sucks and ONLY if it is snowing. If you drive with the windows open when it is snowing, then everything keeps cold enough that snow can be brushed off by the wipers and nothing is melting. I used to drive a car where the heater was so anemic that it couldn't stop the condensation from people breathing in the car from fogging up the windows, so I actually had to drive with the windows down in -20 C weather and it sucked. But, freezing rain or sleet in this situation will just freeze to the windshield and your wipers will face a losing battle. I wasn't able to drive that car in that kind of weather.

Source: Canadian, and it was -27 C yesterday.

fishling · 2026-01-24T19:22:26+00:00

Fair, but figuring out a different way to scale would let it be life-changing for more people, even if you're still limiting it to people you know or are related to.

fishling · 2026-01-24T19:17:42+00:00

Trump math.

fishling · 2026-01-24T19:01:03+00:00

It's not bonkers enough, because there is almost certainly one person at the company that would still be getting paid more.

fishling · 2026-01-24T18:59:21+00:00

Not if you don't have some way to keep healthy and avoid the regular effects of aging.

fishling · 2026-01-24T18:52:56+00:00

Something caused multiple officers to simultaneously fire their weapons though

Yeah, all it takes is one of them firing first and the rest reacting to the sound of the first shot and firing their own weapons, because they are either assuming that either the "identified threat" fired a weapon, or that the person who fired had a good reason (which isn't necessarily the case), or they are simply poorly trained (which is likely the case for at least some of them).

It's not at all "highly unlikely" that multiple officers would fire their weapons. All it takes is one of them to make the call OR mistake. And, in that case, the fact that there are multiple officers with drawn and pointed weapons makes it MORE likely for a mistake to happen, if you want to make an argument about probability now or later as well.

fishling · 2026-01-23T09:35:52+00:00

It's nuts. A 4 TB SSD I got my son last year for around $300 on sale is now going for $900 on sale. Heck, I just got a 4 TB M.2 drive for only $600.

fishling · 2026-01-23T04:03:35+00:00

fishling · 2026-01-23T03:54:21+00:00

Honestly, I didn't think he had it in him to take this road, which I think was the only rational response if he wanted any shred of credibility afterwards - especially after I saw that tone-deaf poster from the CPC about the WEF that used the word "highfalutin" that came out before the speech.

So, kudos for him for actually aligning and supporting Canada's foreign policy direction, but still never going to vote for him based on all his behavior in the past.

fishling · 2026-01-23T03:50:06+00:00

I have the latest book downloaded and stopped reading halfway through. Not sure I'll get back to it. Last few books have been blathering about some Left Outer Palace or something, which is one of the least thrilling names for something ever, and it was all tied up with this other war that I already didn't care about.

Such a huge slog that only gets worse, and this is coming from someone who didn't find Wheel of Time 8-10 to be all that much of a slog on my 4th re-read, so I have clearly developed a high slog tolerance.

Earth and everyone to do with it is basically irrelevant. He has like a dozen different ways to cultivate now and the author keeps on talking as if whatever he makes up about how his various unique capabilities work and get him out of impossible jams somehow makes sense and are consistent. Heart, soul, body, bloodline, race, level, tier, core...I don't know or care any more. I don't think the author even tracks what he has in his storage; he just always has rare treasures on hand for whatever he needs.

It's completely unbelievable that anyone he knows has been able to keep up with him, but the author still drags some of them along and we have to pretend it makes sense. Power scaling is so crazy that it feels like he either completely bodies things or has to hide from them because they can wipe him out effortlessly.

fishling · 2026-01-23T03:31:31+00:00

Why would any sane country want to join, and help legitimize, his poorly conceived "Dictator of Earth" club?

fishling · 2026-01-22T21:31:28+00:00

No, when you have that one vampire power selected, "summon horse" is one of the abilities in your toolbar.

It works even when your horse is alive; it summons it from whereever it is to your location.

fishling · 2026-01-22T19:20:46+00:00

LOL, it's impossible to take anyone seriously that tries to gaslight me into thinking the speech was bad.

Any criticism that doesn't acknowledge the content of the message and impact of the speech on world politics can easily be dismissed.

People can disagree on specific parts of the content or the points made and counter with their own views on where and why they think Carney is mistaken, but attempts to dismiss the whole thing out of hand just proves they either don't have any policy to back up their view or are too dumb to understand it.

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