1) I’m not a testing box, and 2) I’m not testing boxes.

These two sentences are so meaningful. Thanks for writing them.

-Ravisuriya

Yes… we can also use polarizing filters that let in light from some angles, but not from others. Glass (and lenses made from it) help to distort our vision, but also to extend or focus it. Glass is the basis for greenhouses, which help things to grow in other unsupportable climates. Glass is brittle and can be smashed, but it’s also startlingly resilient. Glass formed into fibres can conduct light–at light speed– around corners and across continents. We usually think of stains as ugly, but stained glass can be beautiful.

Maybe we shouldn’t think of ourselves as testing boxes at all?

I read this two ways. 1) I’m not a testing box, and 2) I’m not testing boxes.

Metaphors are wonderful. They remind me of people, in that they can be so right and so wrong at the same time.

Thanks for the comments, Jerry!

—Michael B.

Any piece of glass also distorts what you see through it. What’s that like in testing?

And what about the box metaphor itself? How do you know that everything of interest is inside what you think of as the box? Any tester with some experience will recognize this problem. Maybe we shouldn’t think of ourselves as testing boxes at all?