Of course 100% code coverage won't make your code better in every possible aspect, nor it guarantee that tests are perfectly written, but at least a) the tough parts of the code won't be skipped during the test b) you will have cleaner, more usable (testable) API.
Re:Stop Using Mocks
by famousactress on Wednesday March 23, 2011 @01:23PM
(#2360323)
I still think it's a bit of a wonked metric. The goal out to be to increase your coverage of possible test cases, not LOC. Since you can't cover every possible test case on any non-trivial project, they must have priority. Priority is probably something like how likely the case is to occur, balanced against the consequences of a failure.
Test coverage is a simple indicator, and simple indicators are handy.. but chasing 100% too blindly will cause you to start seeing every line of code as equal, and they're not.
[edit] - oh, I meant to mention that both of your points (a & b) make sense. I can see how chasing coverage could help make sure you test parts of your code you've been avoiding because they're hard to test. I just wonder if it's the best way to accomplish that goal.
[edit] I forgot to mention what value I do think it has. On teams that I'm on I always say I frankly don't care what the number is, as long as it's going up and not down.