When tests are ugly, maintaining them is hard; and that makes maintaining the production code hard because the tests have to be maintained along with the production code. [...] If you want your production code to be easy to maintain, you must keep your tests easy to maintain. [...] The tests need to be well structured, well designed, and well coded. They need to be readable, understandable, and flexible. Duplication must be eliminated from them. [...]
Test code is what we depend upon for design documentation, correctness verification, design support, and so many other things. Our tests support our refactoring. Our tests give us the courage to make changes. Our tests tell us what has gone wrong whenever we break something. Given that we depend on our tests for so much; doesn't it make sense to treat them well?
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