Skip to content

Commit 1ba2b11

Browse files
committed
Remove the "checking vs exploration" text
I've moved this to a Canvas/Perusall reading, so it doesn't need to be here anymore.
1 parent d0a6350 commit 1ba2b11

File tree

1 file changed

+4
-34
lines changed

1 file changed

+4
-34
lines changed

README.md

Lines changed: 4 additions & 34 deletions
Original file line numberDiff line numberDiff line change
@@ -3,11 +3,10 @@
33
Pre-lab to get started on compiling and running C programs and using `valgrind` to identify
44
memory leaks.
55

6-
* [Background](#background)
7-
* [Checking vs. Exploration](#checking-vs-exploration)
8-
* [Compiling and running a C program](#compiling-and-running-a-c-program)
9-
* [Using valgrind to find memory leaks](#using-valgrind-to-find-memory-leaks)
10-
* [What to do](#what-to-do)
6+
- [Background](#background)
7+
- [Compiling and running a C program](#compiling-and-running-a-c-program)
8+
- [Using valgrind to find memory leaks](#using-valgrind-to-find-memory-leaks)
9+
- [What to do](#what-to-do)
1110

1211
## Background
1312

@@ -47,35 +46,6 @@ particularly useful lessons in this context would be:
4746
* <http://www.cprogramming.com/tutorial/c/lesson14.html>
4847
* Overview of command line arguments in C.
4948

50-
### Checking vs. Exploration
51-
52-
[As this article points out nicely](https://www.developsense.com/blog/2009/08/testing-vs-checking/),
53-
it's useful to make distinction between checking (which is what we
54-
typically call testing in our courses) and exploration (he calls it
55-
testing, but I prefer exploration given that "testing" means other
56-
things). Checking is what we do to see if our code (still) works.
57-
Exploration is what we do to learn more about a domain or a tool or a
58-
language. Exploration is often crucial when we're new to a space, and
59-
it's important to recognize that the stuff we're writing when we explore
60-
is often pretty crappy (because we don't know what we're doing yet). As
61-
a result one often does the exploring off to the side, with the
62-
intention of throwing it away. I bring all this up because I suspect
63-
there will be a fair amount of exploring that goes on during this
64-
pre-lab and the following labs.
65-
66-
Try to be intentional and honest about that. Step off to the side and
67-
try a little exploratory code to figure out if you've got an idea worked
68-
out correctly. Then throw away that "quick and dirty" code, and bring
69-
your new knowledge back to the project at hand.
70-
71-
(It's worth noting that
72-
[the article linked above](https://www.developsense.com/blog/2009/08/testing-vs-checking/)
73-
has clearly had a long and complex history, as indicated by the long note at the top with
74-
links to subsequent pieces he wrote in response to (mis) interpretations of his ideas.
75-
All that said, I still think there's a lot of really good stuff here, and I think his
76-
distinction between testing and exploration is entirely valid, despite it's rather terrible
77-
design aesthetic 😜.)
78-
7949
### Compiling and running a C program
8050

8151
In the exercise below you'll need to edit, (re)compile, and run the C

0 commit comments

Comments
 (0)