Why should I use test environments in PHP?

Question

Recently, I heard many people argue about using PHP testing features like PHPunit and SimpleTest, and their IDE of choice (Eclipse for me). After I searched for a topic, it’s still hard for me to understand the pros and cons of using these testing systems to speed up development.

If anyone could explain this to me at a more basic level, I would really appreciate it. I am using PHP5 for notification.

Thanks a lot!

Answer 1

I am not a big fan of unit testing: I am not saying that they are useless, they can be very useful - in certain situations.

The fact is that some people tend to overestimate what they can do with the unit test.

Just remember two things: 1) Unit test CANNOT replace beta testing. A bad interface remains a bad interface, even if the code behind it works. (for example: if the button is fuzzy, it really does not matter whether the function with which it is connected works or not) 2) Unit test takes time to record. If you are developing a small project yourself or in a small team, perhaps you can use this time to improve your code.

And take a look at this (please read it with a pinch of salt, obviously the author is provocative in the way he writes things): http://www.wilshipley.com/blog/2005/09/unit-testing-is-teh -suck-urr.html