Test the source code, not the assembly

Unit tests are great. Integration tests are great. Regression tests are great. User tests are great. The problem with these kinds of test is that they test the compiled source code -- the assembly -- not the source code itself.

Why is this a problem, you ask? The problem is that the source code, which (should) communicates intention to other programmers is not tested. This aspect of the source code is not tested. It is very hard to test this aspect, though. The only way I know of is Checkstyle (and similar lint tools), and code reviews. The former has the advantage of being possible to automate, the latter has the advantage of being correct (which the former is not :)).

I use correct here in the sense that it actually reflect the opinions of by the target audience -- the programmer. The primary user of source code is the programmer, not the computer. The primary user of the compiled code is the computer (which doesn't have strongs opinions on how structure of the code should by, by the way).

The idea I'm trying to express here is that source code can be functionally perfect in the sense that millions and millions of testcases verify every tiny aspect of the code. Yet the source code will fail miserably on a core review. Testing is not enough if the source code is supposed to live for long.

Is code review the only tool for making sure that source code does not degenerate into a huge ball of spaghetti/mud mixture? Refactoring is often mentioned in discussions like this. However, in my mind this is is a tool for un-mudding the ball into something nicer. It is not a tool for identifying what to refactor.

It kind of sucks, because core review are boring like hell, but what other solution is there to this problem? I would be happy to know of any other than code reviews.

RIP C and LISP

Two very influential profiles in the computer science community and in software engineering has passed away.

On the 12th of October the father of C, Dennis Ritchie passed away; and on the 24th the father of LISP, John McCarthy, passed away. I encourage you to read up on their achievements during their life-time.

Imagine a world without C -- the worlds first really portable language.

Imagine a would without LISP -- the Maxwell's equations of computer science.