21 Sep
2011
21 Sep
'11
12:11 p.m.
-----Original Message-----
From: cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org [mailto:cctalk-
bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Fred Cisin
Sent: Wednesday, September 21, 2011 11:48 AM
To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts
Subject: Re: RANT: Never enough room
[snip]
Too many people never seem to learn that a program that works is NOT
"correct" unless it would also work with bad inputs or other conditions.
"Your program worked! That's a very good START. Now, what happens if the
user types in 0 for the input value? What happens if the user types in
"NO" instead of a number? What happens if the user puts a space in the
middle of the name that they are supposed to type in?"
Many, many years ago, back before I'd learned anything like QA or test methodology, I
was writing an application (command line!) that required freeform user input. After
I'd thought of everything I could think of, I asked the office manager to help me out.
I didn't tell her anything about the program (although she knew the general idea of
it) and asked her to just type any sort of thing that popped into her head. When she
couldn't crash the app or corrupt the database, I figured I was done. :-) -- Ian