[fpc-pascal] FPCUnit article/tutorial online.

[L505]

> Some weeks ago I've discussed unit testing with a friend (who is working
> in a larger team), as I had a light suspiciosly view on this topic. For
> _complex_ systems with _clear_ structure and interfaces, they absolutely
> make sense and are productive. But the entry level where they are worth
> the effort is quite high. I guess that even for average industrial
> automation applications (where I have used FPC in practice), the usage
> of unit tests is a little bit exaggerated and won't help much.
> As Michael stated: It depends on the usage case... And it's something
> which I would call in German: "Da wird mal wieder eine neue Sau durchs
> Dorf getrieben." (Probably not translateable to English, sorry). It's a
> buzzword, managers like it, but there are cases where they really make
> sense. But by far not in all cases.
>
>
> - Sebastian


Those were some of my suspicions too, since on for example the C2 wiki, I've read a lot
about these "tests" but I never see any or many actual code or real world examples on the C2
wiki.  Even if these tests are extremely useful in several areas, the inventors of the "test
cases" would be better off explaining the tests with real world examples, instead of all the
tricky English and tricky wording.

So in other words, "tests" could be very useful, but the suspicious human needs to see the
usefulness demonstrated first. The suspicious human also needs to clarify whether the word
"test" really means anything, since a test is a vague word (kind of like the phrase DotNet).
You just can't believe something because it was in a book written by some celebrity
programmer. We have seen the compiler can use "tests" in order to test the validity of the
compiler.  Are these "unit tests" or just "tests". It all seems vague to me. A compiler is
very specific and a special program which obviously needs to be "tested". As for whether the
FPC compiler tests have anything to do with "extreme programming", "test cases" and "unit
tests" I'm not sure.  It may be just a vague term for "general tests to do on your code", or
it may actually be something more than just that. It's their job to make it more clear.. or
if not, maybe a "unit test consulting business" will call you in for an appointment on
Tuesday.

--
L505
http://z505.com