Comment by 0xbadcafebee

Mocks aren't an anti-pattern. Anti-patterns are a "common response to a recurring problem, usually ineffective, risking being highly counterproductive". On the contrary, mocks are a common response to a recurring problem which are often effective and have no greater risk than a great many alternative testing methodologies. They do solve problems and they are useful. But like literally anything else in the universe: it depends, and they don't solve every problem.

You wanna know how to test without mocking? Use any kind of test. Seriously, just make a test. I don't care what kind of test it is, just have one. When you notice a problem your testing doesn't catch, improve your testing. Rinse, repeat. I don't care what kind of 10x rockstar uber-genius you think you are, you're going to be doing this anyway no matter what super amazing testing strategy you come up with, so just start on it now. Are there some ways of testing that are more effective than others? Yes, but it depends. If testing were simple, easy, straightforward and universal we wouldn't be debating how to do it.

(about 99% of the time I'm disappointed in these clickbait blog posts upvoted on HN. they are shallow and brief (it's a blog post, not a book), yet quite often dismissive of perfectly reasonable alternatives, and in the absence of any other information, misleading. it would be better to just describe the problem and how the author solved it, and leave out the clickbaity sweeping generalizations and proclamations)