The future of Rails test data management: … rests entirely on your shoulders, it turns out

One year ago last week, I wrapped up work on a Ruby gem called test_data that aims to be a more robust alternative to Rails’ rather-limited database fixtures. It also stands in sharp contrast to factory_bot, the design of which has led countless developers to tie their test suites into very slow, very confusing knots.I iterated on test_data’s basic design in meetings and on whiteboards for years before I broke ground. Once I started coding, I couldn’t stop. I worked tirelessly to cover every edge case. I plugged it into several of my own apps to prove that it imbued the benefits I thought it would: dramatically simpler test code and gobsmackingly-fast runtime performance. And then I walked away from the project without so much as telling anyone about it.Why the hell would I do that? Let’s chat.