Where are the layman non-prerequisite introductory materials for everything-testing in Python?

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If I had to really pick the kind of testing I would like to learn (I have no idea which way this translates to Python) is found here http://butunclebob.com/ArticleS.UncleBob.TheThreeRulesOfTdd. I don't know if this is agile, extreme or if it's just called TDD. Is this unit testing, doc testing a combination of both or am I missing something? Is there something even better, similar or is this style simply not applicable? I am looking for extreme beginners material on how to do testing (specifically for Python) as described in开发者_开发知识库 my link. I am open to ideas and all Python resources. Thanks!

I pasted the original message here for reference http://dpaste.com/274603/plain/

The simplest thing to start with is Python's unittest module. There are frameworks to do things more automatically later on, but unittest works fine for simple cases.

The basic idea is that you have a class for a particular test suite. You define a set of test methods, and optional setUp and tearDown methods to be executed before and after each test in that suite. Within each test, you can use various assert* methods to check that things work.

Finally, you call unittest.main() to run all the tests you've defined.

Have a look at this example: http://docs.python.org/library/unittest#basic-example

What resources do you fellas have for starting out in testing in particular to Python? ... What are the most excellent places to start out at, anybody?

Step 1. Write less.

Step 2. Focus.

Step 3. Identify in clear, simple sentences what you are testing. Is it software? What does it do? What architecture does it run on? Specifically list the specific things you're actually going to test. Specific. Focused.

Step 4. For one thing you're going to test. One thing. Pick a requirement it must meet. One requirement. I.e., "Given x and y as input, computes z."

Looking at your question, I feel you might find this to be very, very hard. But it's central to testing. Indeed, this is all that testing is.

• You must have something to test. (A "fixture".)

• You must have requirements against which to test it. (A "TestCase".)

• You have have measurable pass/fail criteria. (An "assertion".)

If you don't have that, you can't test. It helps to write it down in words. Short, focused lists of fixtures, cases and assertions. Short. Focused.

Once you've got one requirement, testing is just coding the requirements into a language that asserts the results of each test case. Nothing more.

Your unittest.TestCase uses setUp to create a fixture. A TestCase can have one or more test methods to exercise the fixture in different ways. Each test method has one or more assertions about the fixture.

Once you have a test case which passes, you can move back to Step 4 and do one more requirement.

Once you have all the requirements for a fixture, you go back to Step 3 and do one more fixture.

Build up your tests slowly. In pieces. Write less. Focus.

I like this one and this one too

Testing is more of an art, and you get better through practice.

For myself, I have read this book Pragmatic Unit Testing in C# with NUnit, and I'll really recommend it to you. Although its about .Net and C# and not about Python, you can skip the exact code, but try to understand the principles being taught.

It contains good examples about what one should look out for when designing tests. And also, what kind of code should be written that supports the tests-first paradigm.

Here's a link to C. Titus Brown's Software Carpentry notes on testing: http://ivory.idyll.org/articles/advanced-swc/#testing-your-software

It talks basics about testing, including ideas of how to test your code (and retrofitting tests onto existing code). Seems up your alley.