I'm with you on this one.
- Each class should unit test it's own behaviour against it's desgn spec./ contract.
The example you cited of changing functionality (123,456 => 12,3456) is a re-specification of the design or contract and probably shouldn't be done, or at very least, would require a very clear notation in the upgrade documentation.
It would almost certainly be best if any such change to the published API would be handled by adding a new method rather than altering the behaviour of the existing one. Alternatively, making the changed behaviour selectable via a configuration or instanciation parameter may be acceptable.
- User's of a class should test their own behaviour and trust the design spec./ contract.
To do otherwise is to invalidate the whole purpose of the contract. The essence of which is that a module/class/library contracts to return a given set of outputs when provided with a specified range of inputs.
It would also logically lead to a maze of dark twisty tests, where every module would start testing that substr counted from 0 not 1 and that * really knew how to multipy two numbers. Then, what about the CPU? I mean, there was that early pentium math bug, maybe we should all be testing that our math co-processors aren't similarly effected:)
Examine what is said, not who speaks.
"Efficiency is intelligent laziness." -David Dunham
"When I'm working on a problem, I never think about beauty. I think only how to solve the problem. But when I have finished, if the solution is not beautiful, I know it is wrong." -Richard Buckminster Fuller
If I understand your problem, I can solve it! Of course, the same can be said for you.
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