[developer2]

> one of the problems common in big test suites: poorly factored tests that end up being the sort of expressive duplication that is a giant drag on improving existing code.

I feel like you just described every developer/codebase where mock testing is stupidly enforced. Where every single unit test mocks every single indirect object. 98% of the testing code is just exhaustive setup and teardown of objects not being tested by each test, and then a bunch of conditional checks to ensure that every deeper/indirect method is being called exactly the right number of times with exactly the right arguments and returning exactly the right value. Almost all of the test code is just hacking mock objects. The actual purpose of each test is buried so deep that it's impossible to even understand the business logic being applied.

I hate evangelical "mock testers" with a passion.

[wpietri]

Yes. I have been doing unit testing for a long time, and I think this is a clear antipattern. It's cargo-cult testing, not actually a serious effort to improve quality and developer productivity.

[spullara]

These are absolutely the worst tests I have ever seen. They make iterating on the implementation almost impossible. Why people do this I will never understand.

[lexandstuff]

Preach. This is what chasing 100% test coverage looks like.