There’s been quite a buzz in the narrow world that I inhabit about this recent interview with Donald Knuth. For us “TDDers”, the relevant quote is:
[…] the idea of immediate compilation and “unit tests” appeals to me only rarely, when I’m feeling my way in a totally unknown environment and need feedback about what works and what doesn’t. Otherwise, lots of time is wasted on activities that I simply never need to perform or even think about. Nothing needs to be “mocked up.”
Keith has discussed this point nicely. Personally, in a scarily long time in software (which including tourism at some of the best research labs in the world), I know of a handful of people who can think very hard and then type in a working program of more than 3 lines.
In the meantime, I’m curiously chuffed that the concept of mocking appears to have entered the vocabulary of someone so far away.
As I said, I inhabit a very narrow world.