> Tests have nothing to do with code quality. All they do is verify that the code works. I would argue that the simpler and therefore the better your code is, the less you need to rely on tests to verify that it works. Fewer edge cases means fewer tests.
While I won't argue that tests verify that the code works, the assertion that tests have nothing to do with code quality based on that premise is incorrect, and here's why.
Some of the main types of poorly written code are 1) brittle code, which breaks easily when things are changed, such as dependency changes or changes in I/O, and 2) unreadable code, which decreases accurate understanding of what the code does and causes incorrect assumptions to be made, which yields bugs.
Unit tests, over time, raise the alarm to these types of code smells. While a test might not yield much info for a short time after it is written, when the code ages and has to stand up to the test of changing code/environment around it, well written tests WILL highlight parts of the code that can be considered poorly written due to the two criteria above.
While I won't argue that tests verify that the code works, the assertion that tests have nothing to do with code quality based on that premise is incorrect, and here's why.
Some of the main types of poorly written code are 1) brittle code, which breaks easily when things are changed, such as dependency changes or changes in I/O, and 2) unreadable code, which decreases accurate understanding of what the code does and causes incorrect assumptions to be made, which yields bugs.
Unit tests, over time, raise the alarm to these types of code smells. While a test might not yield much info for a short time after it is written, when the code ages and has to stand up to the test of changing code/environment around it, well written tests WILL highlight parts of the code that can be considered poorly written due to the two criteria above.