[HN Gopher] Mutmut - Python Mutation Tester
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Mutmut - Python Mutation Tester
        
       Author : e-topy
       Score  : 14 points
       Date   : 2025-05-25 13:38 UTC (1 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (github.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (github.com)
        
       | MichaelNolan wrote:
       | I can't speak for this specific library, I've only use PiTest for
       | Java projects, but mutation testing is a pretty awesome idea.
       | 
       | One hard part is deciding which code is worth doing mutation
       | testing on. A lot of "business" code probably shouldn't be tested
       | this way. The effort in writing the tests outweighs the return on
       | investment. But if you're making shared library code then
       | mutation testing is great. It really gives you confidence that
       | the code is actually working as expected.
        
         | Calzifer wrote:
         | A PiTest blog post [1] mentions an interesting article [2] on
         | how mutation testing is (or was) used by Google.
         | 
         | If I remember correctly, instead of overwhelming the developer
         | with the full report, CI only presented a hand full of randomly
         | chosen failed mutation tests. The developer then could decide
         | to ignore the result (mutation testing will usually produce
         | some false positives) or extend the tests to kill the mutation.
         | 
         | I used PiTest recently the first time and found it quite
         | useful. As you said, a pretty awesome idea. But definitely not
         | a tool for people who always strive for 100% test coverage.
         | 
         | [1] https://blog.pitest.org/dont-let-your-code-dry/
         | 
         | [2]
         | https://homes.cs.washington.edu/~rjust/publ/mutation_testing...
        
       ___________________________________________________________________
       (page generated 2025-05-26 23:01 UTC)