5 ms·

100% Bug Free Software with Mutation Testing

7 points by julienmaring 5y ago

runako 5y ago
The submitted headline makes bold claims not actually contained in the article. I would recommend using the original title instead: "Hunt The Bugs With Mutation Testing."
- zyemuzu 5y ago
  The header text falls off the page on mobile, I consider that a bug.
  - julienmaring 5y ago
    Just fixed it thanks :)
- julienmaring 5y ago
  I wanted to change to see if it will help me to reach more people. Do you think it's a problem? I'm new with hackernews
  - gus_massa 5y ago
    The guidelines ask to use the original title https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html There are some exceptions, when the title is a linkbait or not descriptive. Anyway, in general the dry titles are preferred here, people will complain otherwise.
    - julienmaring 5y ago
      Very clear. Thanks for the clarification I'll be more careful next time
    - julienmaring 5y ago
      Do you know if I can edit the original post?
      - gus_massa 5y ago
        You can edit the title of the post for a time after it was submitted. Probably 2 hours, but I'm not sure. The interval may change from time to time. Another possibility is to write to the mods and ask them to change it, in case you made a horrible mistake. But this is not horrible. Just remember to use the original title next time you post something. (Note that if you are the author and use as the original title something like "Totally amazing program that will blow your mind!!!" and use the original title here, people <bold>will</bold> complain.) It looks like you are the author of the blog post and/or the developer of the software. Next time add a small comment explaining that and offering to answer questions. It's not mandatory, but sometimes people is more friendly if the submitter is the author and replies the questions in the thread.
adolgert 5y ago
Mutation testing looks really fun until you use it. It has two problems, that false positives and false negatives abound, and that it doesn't scale well as code gets larger. Suppose you modify code, then how long does it take the mutation testing framework to retest the relevant code? On the other hand, mutations can do a good job of estimating test coverage. In particular, they can help to prioritize tests by finding tests that cover the most mutations.
- julienmaring 5y ago
  I agree with you! I only used it on a minor part of the code such as services. It can help people to understand why they are testing
  - adolgert 5y ago
    "...understand why they are testing." That's interesting. There is an information-theoretic measure for test quality that asks how effective a test is by asking how closely it examines a test output. For instance, does it "smoke test" that the output isn't NULL, or does it look at a returned data structure and enforce invariants in detail. It's the flip-side of asking in how much detail a test exercises the code. Well, keep having fun. Testing is a great way to think about code.
gus_massa 5y ago
Another suggestion: Don't repost too much. A few repost are ok, https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html , but you reposted the same article 7 times in 2 days. Users will get angry and flag your posts, and the mods will notice and may ban your site and your account. The rules are not clear about how often you can repost, but in my opinion it's like a week, perhaps 2 or 3 days. At most 1 per day, but 1 per day is too much for my taste. Also, reposting the same article more than 5-10 times will make people complain...
- julienmaring 5y ago
  Do you know how I can write to the mods in order to remove my posts?

7 points by julienmaring 5y ago

The submitted headline makes bold claims not actually contained in the article. I would recommend using the original title instead: "Hunt The Bugs With Mutation Testing."

zyemuzu 5y ago
The header text falls off the page on mobile, I consider that a bug.
- julienmaring 5y ago
  Just fixed it thanks :)
julienmaring 5y ago
I wanted to change to see if it will help me to reach more people. Do you think it's a problem? I'm new with hackernews
- gus_massa 5y ago
  The guidelines ask to use the original title https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html There are some exceptions, when the title is a linkbait or not descriptive. Anyway, in general the dry titles are preferred here, people will complain otherwise.
  - julienmaring 5y ago
    Very clear. Thanks for the clarification I'll be more careful next time
  - julienmaring 5y ago
    Do you know if I can edit the original post?
    - gus_massa 5y ago
      You can edit the title of the post for a time after it was submitted. Probably 2 hours, but I'm not sure. The interval may change from time to time. Another possibility is to write to the mods and ask them to change it, in case you made a horrible mistake. But this is not horrible. Just remember to use the original title next time you post something. (Note that if you are the author and use as the original title something like "Totally amazing program that will blow your mind!!!" and use the original title here, people <bold>will</bold> complain.) It looks like you are the author of the blog post and/or the developer of the software. Next time add a small comment explaining that and offering to answer questions. It's not mandatory, but sometimes people is more friendly if the submitter is the author and replies the questions in the thread.

adolgert 5y ago

Mutation testing looks really fun until you use it. It has two problems, that false positives and false negatives abound, and that it doesn't scale well as code gets larger. Suppose you modify code, then how long does it take the mutation testing framework to retest the relevant code? On the other hand, mutations can do a good job of estimating test coverage. In particular, they can help to prioritize tests by finding tests that cover the most mutations.

julienmaring 5y ago
I agree with you! I only used it on a minor part of the code such as services. It can help people to understand why they are testing
- adolgert 5y ago
  "...understand why they are testing." That's interesting. There is an information-theoretic measure for test quality that asks how effective a test is by asking how closely it examines a test output. For instance, does it "smoke test" that the output isn't NULL, or does it look at a returned data structure and enforce invariants in detail. It's the flip-side of asking in how much detail a test exercises the code. Well, keep having fun. Testing is a great way to think about code.

gus_massa 5y ago

Another suggestion: Don't repost too much. A few repost are ok, https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html , but you reposted the same article 7 times in 2 days. Users will get angry and flag your posts, and the mods will notice and may ban your site and your account. The rules are not clear about how often you can repost, but in my opinion it's like a week, perhaps 2 or 3 days. At most 1 per day, but 1 per day is too much for my taste. Also, reposting the same article more than 5-10 times will make people complain...

julienmaring 5y ago
Do you know how I can write to the mods in order to remove my posts?