On Jan 29, 2007, at 9:23 AM, Bert Freudenberg wrote:

> I actually side with Ralph on this one. It is very satisfying to  
> see the test runner turn green. With tests in the image that you  
> cannot fix, you will never get this satisfaction.

True, the green bar is very satisfying. But Ralph's reasons go a bit  
deeper. The purpose of a test suite is to provide immediate feedback  
on during development. Running the suite is like asking "how am I  
doing?" A green bar means "fine," and a red bar means, "STOP! You  
just introduced a bug!" The value of a test suite is that it can let  
us know that we've introduced a bug at the moment it happens. That's  
the best time to fix it, because the person who understands it best  
is right there and has all the information he needs.

On the other hand, a test suite is *not* a bug database. That's what  
Mantis is for. "Visibility" of known bugs doesn't get them fixed, it  
just makes them overshadow the unknown bugs we'll introduce going  
forward.

Colin