Re: [PATCH] CONTRIBUTE - writing tests for understanding internals

[Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org>]

> From: Przemysław Wojnowski <esperanto@cumego.com>
> Cc: emacs-devel@gnu.org
> Date: Wed, 11 Nov 2015 08:45:23 +0100
> 
> > Thanks, but I don't think CONTRIBUTE is the right place for
> > motivation-related text.  We should find some other place for that.
> 
> This was not for motivational purposes, but to tell how to learn about
> Emacs Internals - like the old part.

The style is quite different: where CONTRIBUTE is about information
for contributors, the suggested change, with the exception of its
first sentence, is a motivational text that has no informational value
for contributors.

More importantly, I disagree with your posit that writing tests is a
good way of learning about Emacs internals.  Best tests are written by
looking at the spec alone, because looking at the implementation will
bias you when you write the test.  That's why tests should ideally be
written by someone who is not the implementor.  I'm sure you are
familiar with the TDD methodology, whose strong point is precisely
that you write tests before implementing anything.