[ Thanks to steve
hill for this link. ]
“This is true even when simple test runners are used,
but I decided to make things a little snappier by including a
couple of other types of measurement and generating a “scorecard”
for the present state and progress of my Python software projects.
Here’s how it works, and a download link for my script, which I
call “PyRate”.“Programming is one of the most extreme examples of delayed
gratification — you can work for months without having
anything to show for it (or at least nothing that would convince
your family that it was worth all that time and trouble). This can
be really demoralizing, especially if you have any doubts about
your abilities to begin with.“Testing helps. You won’t be able to convince many other people
of your progress, but at least you will have an objective measure
telling you how much closer to your goal you are every day you work
on the project. Also, because automated testing catches bugs right
when they happen, it’s usually much easier to track them down
(because you know what you’ve changed since the previous
test).”