Technical notes on web development, DevOps, and AI integration.
1 article
Characterization tests lock in what code actually does while product decisions stay pending, guarded by a pending marker above the assertion.
TL;DR: Characterization tests document current behavior, not correctness; a failure means something changed, not broke. The author found pending-decision markers above such tests and realized the odd procedure—write a failing assertion, replace it with actual output—is intentional. A passing test guards deferred decisions better than any comment, letting owners decide later through one honest commit.