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Ask HN: Bad tests better than no tests?

1 pointsby devcheeseover 9 years ago
I can see this going both ways. But I think a project without tests would be less toxic than a project with bad tests. I'm curious what your thoughts are on this.

1 comment

viraptorover 9 years ago
It depends how bad they are. I&#x27;d say the threshold between bad and useless for me is: 1. Do you have to change unrelated tests to still pass as you add features? 2. Do the tests ever catch issues as you modify related code?<p>They may be bad, but if they work and don&#x27;t get in the way, there&#x27;s no reason to remove them. Even if they&#x27;re useless, you&#x27;re pretty much guaranteed to prove yourself incorrect the moment you delete them (you&#x27;ll introduce an issue they would catch). In most cases it&#x27;s better to just leave stuff in until it can be rewritten properly - removing should be the last resort.