Don’t just check that you are building your product right. Also check that you are building the right product! i.e. one that conforms to your user’s requirements and use cases. If you don’t do that you will not drown in bug reports, but change requests instead (“please fix feature X, please add feature Y, please change behavior of X, please change usability of this…, please change lag of that…”)

– I do use shared c# components and libraries with database logic. I will take a look at your framework, thanks for sharing!

– I do separate a lot of logic already, like render related code library, UI related functions etc. I’m picking up other languages too, I will keep reading up on it, at some point I know it’s the best way, need to keep pushing myself. I think that’s the main point here. I also see over the years some tools that where vital can get deprecated rather quickly at some point, because of new features or changes in workflow pipeline. How far would you push TDD if it was only you writing/supporting these tools. And they where not overly intricate or complicated?

– I bought your book a month ago ;)

Thanks Rob, it is of help, I never miss a post. It’s interesting following your trials and tribulations!

Cheers!
-Johan

A few things:
– You can use .NET and Python in Max, and both have great testing support. I’d remove or reduce MXS usage (the same way I wouldn’t write MEL anymore in Maya). You’ll need to find or build some automation infrastructure (see https://github.com/rgalanakis/dccautomation). I feel like trying to do automated testing with MAXScript would require extraordinary startup costs, and isn’t worth it now that other options exist. If other options didn’t exist, it’d still be worth spinning up some testing libraries (just base them on Python stuff that already exists).
– I bet those “small, one off tools” actually share quite a bit of logic or libraries. You should train yourself to recognize these commonalities, and learn how to build libraries and reusable code. This can be difficult when programming primarily in DCC apps- try some standalone programming projects.
– Check out my book (http://www.amazon.com/Practical-Programming-Python-Robert-Galanakis/dp/1849694729), even if you are in Max. You’ll pick up useful ideas, I promise.

Hope that helps some, Johan!

For me it’s not about not wanting to write tests, but more about how to go about it. Especially with maxscript where there’s a lot of interaction with the user and scene objects. And many small one-off tools, that either work or not.
I think it’s probably been a long time since you used mxs, but would love to hear some pointers of how to set up such an environment. Thanks!
-Johan