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https://softwareengineering.stackexchange.com/questions/384917/why-would-i-not-need-to-run-e2e-tests-slowly-if-i-want-to-debug-them

I asked this question a few months ago but deleted it because I was kind of embarrassed when it accumulated downvotes very quickly and was closed. Ironically it attracted a quickly upvoted comment of "I don't understand what extra information you would get by running tests more slowly", which seemed to feed into my original reasoning for asking the question on an objective Q&A in the first place (ie. What is the reasoning for this apparently obvious knowledge?), and the the comment seemed to provide some reasoning that could have been a valid answer.

I think back to it because I'm still not sure how to debug E2E testing in a better way and I don't know how to ask this question any more clear than done here. It seems to me that "Why would I not want E2E testing to run slowly?" is quite clear, has opportunity for non-subjective answers, and I give the context of a test debugging scenario.

I guess I should include a screenshot since it's deleted, I maybe shouldn't have deleted it.

Screenshot of Deleted Question

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    The question has a premise that running tests slowly gives more information than running them quickly. I perceived this premise as totally insane, thus rendering the question incomprehensible for me. My comment tried to elicit clarification on this premise. Your comments (not in screenshot) indicate this is a tooling issue (e.g. unavailability of debugger tools) but we didn't get around to talk and edit the question before you deleted. I think a question more about your problems than about understanding someone's opinions might fare better.
    – amon
    Commented Apr 11, 2019 at 17:32
  • Editing the question seemed fruitless when it was downvoted and closed so quickly. The downvotes/closing seem to imply to me that my premise is unrealistic and "insane", but I'm a novice and testing visually is what novices do. I agree debugging tools relevant to the specific tool used have some influence on the question, but I think that would be relevant to expand on in an answer to this question - the answer to the question is "these debugging tools and techniques make running E2E slowly not useful". That answer is relevant whether the techniques are available in the specific tool or not.
    – MattTreichel
    Commented Apr 11, 2019 at 18:43
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    @MattTreichel: Putting a question on hold as "unclear what you're asking" is meant to avoid accumulating answers that would be invalidated once you have clarified your question. Then you can work with the commenters to get the question into a shape where it is suitable for re-opening.
    – Bart van Ingen Schenau
    Commented Apr 12, 2019 at 11:39
  • @MattTreichel:some guys here are very trigger-happy with the downvote button. That would not be so much of a problem if they would take the time and come back to a question at a later time, check if it got improved by the OP, and then revoke their downvotes. Unfortunately, this almost never happens. See my former meta question here. Or in other words: don't take it personal, this is a community problem.
    – Doc Brown
    Commented Apr 12, 2019 at 14:06
  • @BartvanIngenSchenau Well, to be honest, I don't actually really see what needs to be clarified. The only substantial complaint I've gotten is my premise is invalid because you would gain nothing from slow E2E testing, but my premise is real and I elaborated why someone might think so in the existing question? Explaining why the premise is invalid in detail is the answer I'm looking for?
    – MattTreichel
    Commented Apr 12, 2019 at 16:40
  • @MattTreichel, the kind of clarifications you could have done in the question are the information about logging/debugging that you mentioned in a comment and expanding a bit on the type of system you are working with (a web application) and the type of test (testing through the UI as-if you are an end user). That might be obvious to you, but it is not the type of system or test that all of us work with on a daily basis.
    – Bart van Ingen Schenau
    Commented Apr 12, 2019 at 20:06
  • @BartvanIngenSchenau That was what my third paragraph already said though... I was testing a web page. I'm looking at elements being selected and where I am in the page. It was tagged with web development and mentioned JavaScript, front end code. I'm not sure how much more I could sign-post it without including "UI" in the title or body, which may have helped, but I'm not sure missing a single word would've warranted a close and downvotes.
    – MattTreichel
    Commented Apr 13, 2019 at 23:11

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I think the question would become an order of magnitude clearer if you would explain in a few words what Protractor is, and give some more details why you think running E2E tests slowly may be helpful. You should not assume that only people knowing this specific tool can give you a sensible answer (as an excuse for omitting a description of the tool). Better assume that there may be some experts here who have used some comparable tools, but have'n heard the brand-name "Protractor" before.

This community here prefers tool agnostic questions, and though you problem may not be 100% independent from the tools, I guess it could be generalized to a larger class of different E2E testing tools.

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  • I haven't done E2E testing before in any other context so I hadn't considered E2E testing from a non-UI perspective. I thought that JavaScript, Protractor, would give enough context, yeah, I had assumed UI testing could be inferred from that. I guess I could've mentioned "UI" in the title, and I don't think the technologies were as important to understand. Kind of a shame the question had to be downvoted and deleted and I only understand that that might have been the problem now.
    – MattTreichel
    Commented Apr 13, 2019 at 23:02
  • Then again, I elaborated I was dealing with testing a web page within the question, so... I'm not entirely convinced I could've edited it to satisfy anyone.
    – MattTreichel
    Commented Apr 13, 2019 at 23:06

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