lesson of passion - tori 500 dirty business
Category:Video games developed in LithuaniaQ:
In what situation is it necessary to use separate languages for unit testing and application?
I'm a junior developer working with a team of experienced senior developers. So I often get caught up in the idea of why we should use different programming languages for unit testing and application. For example, we used Java for the application and we use C++ for unit testing. I really don't see any benefit in doing so.
So my question is, how can I get over this idea?
A:
Because we have different goals in mind.
Testing:
Unit tests should run in the same time and memory as the code they are testing. They should test specific parts of a class and have as little overhead as possible. At the same time, they should be fast and easy to write and execute.
For unit tests, Java is a very good language, because it has a lot of tools that make testing in Java easier. By contrast, C++ requires a lot of setup.
On the other hand, when it comes to system testing (for example to test an application that runs on multiple machines), testing C++ is a good idea.
Application:
The application we write has other requirements than unit tests:
it has to be fast (not too slow for the user),
it has to work without errors,
it has to run without crashing,
it has to be extensible and maintainable.
For the application, C++ is a very good language, because it offers many tools that make building large and complex applications easier. By contrast, Java is an excellent choice for building applications, because it has a lot of tools that make building small and fast applications easier.
Even though C++ can be a lot faster than Java, it can be hard to do the sort of testing that C++ requires. For example, testing for race conditions can be difficult. So using C++ for an application means you have to write a lot of code to check that it works correctly, and that can be hard.
A:
You are overthinking this. Unit testing is unit testing. You have a variety of approaches for that. With C++, it's usually easier to have well separated testing routines than in Java.
A:
You are right, there is no real benefit to having separate languages.
I use J ac619d1d87
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