TITLE: The Roots of TDD -- from 1957
AUTHOR: Eugene Wallingford
DATE: January 22, 2020  3:54 PM
DESC: 
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BODY:

 In 1957,
<A HREF="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_D._McCracken">
   Dan McCracken</A>
 published
<A HREF="https://www.amazon.com/Digital-Computer-Programming-Daniel-McCracken/dp/047158245X">
   Digital Computer Programming</A>,
 perhaps the first book on the new art of programming.  His book
 shows that the roots of extreme programming run deep.  In this
 passage, McCracken encourages both the writing of tests before
 the writing of code and the involvement of the customer in the
 software development process:

<BLOCKQUOTE><EM>
 The first attack on the checkout problem may be made before coding
 is begun.  In order to fully ascertain the accuracy of the answers,
 it is necessary to have a hand-calculated check case with which to
 compare the answers which will later be calculated by the machine.
 This means that stored program machines are never used for a true
 one-shot problem.  There must always be an element of iteration to
 make it pay.  The hand calculations can be done at any point during
 programming.  Frequently, however, computers are operated by
 computing experts to prepare the problems as a service for
 engineers or scientists.  In these cases it is highly desirable
 that the "customer" prepare the check case, largely because logical
 errors and misunderstandings between the programmer and customer
 may be pointed out by such procedure.  If the customer is to
 prepare the test solution is best for him to start well in advance
 of actual checkout, since for any sizable problem it will take
 several days or weeks to calculate the test.
</EM></BLOCKQUOTE>

 I don't have a copy of this book, but I've read a couple of other
 early books by McCracken, including one of his Fortran books for
 engineers and scientists.  He was a good writer and teacher.

 I had the great fortune to meet Dan at an NSF workshop in Clemson,
 South Carolina, back in the mid-1990s.  We spent many hours in the
 evening talking shop and watching basketball on TV.  (Dan was
 cheering his New York Knicks on in the NBA finals, and he was
 happy to learn that I had been a Knicks and Walt Frazier fan in
 the 1970s.)  He was a pioneer of programming and programming
 education who was willing to share his experience with a young CS
 prof who was trying to figure out how to teach.  We kept in touch
 by email thereafter.  It was honor to call him a friend.

 You can find the above quotation in
<A HREF="https://agileforall.com/history-of-tdd-as-told-in-quotes/">
   A History of Test-Driven Development (TDD), as Told in Quotes</A>,
 by Rob Myers.  That post includes several good quotes that Myers
 had to cut from his upcoming book on TDD.  "Of course.  How else
 could you program?"
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