I agree with you that IOC/DI are all about loose coupling.  I didn't watch the video, but I don't think that's why people usually start using it.

People who have followed the solid principles have seen that loose coupling does indeed make your life in code much easier, both at the time you're writing and even more so when it comes time to maintain it later.  So loose coupling is a good thing, but its rarely a goal all its own.

TDD on the other frequently is a goal.  And TDD is virtually impossible without introducing DI or IOC.  And I think that's why you hear the IOC/DI being discussed as a tool to help with unit testing so often.

Fortunately, both view points lead to the same end!

Side effect* not affect.

Effect of something.

You affect something.

:)

@Kevin - Whilst I think that both IOC/DI and TDD can both be useful practices in writing code I'm a bit confused when you say that TDD is "frequently a goal". How is TDD a goal? Surely the goal is likely to be high quality software, TDD (with or without IOC/DI) is just one method of achieving that goal. Maybe I've missed your point - but I would have said the goal of TDD is more maintainable software, but not that TDD itself is a goal - any more than IOC/DI is.

For me it depends why you decide to use an IoC tool in the first place, are you writing tests before of after implementation.

I think if you're writing unit tests after the code so that you can be confident about not introducing regressions then yes, the goal of the IoC tool being there is loosely coupled code and testability is a happy side effect.

However if you're doing TDD and writing tests, before you implement the code, as a means of software design, perhaps there is a reason to suggest that the goal of using an Ioc tool in this scenario is to increase testability. TDD as a form of sotware design functions on the premise that by writing tests first, you will likely have an end product which is testable, loosely coupled and well designed. So if you introduced an IoC tool to facilitate more productive TDD, surely the goal is making it easier to test?