Fwd: [fpc-pascal] fpcUnit todo list

[Jonas Maebe]

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Dean Zobec <dean.zobec at gmail.com>
> Date: 9 november 2006 19:45:56 GMT+01:00
> To: Florian Klaempfl <florian at freepascal.org>, Michael Van Canneyt  
> <michael at freepascal.org>
> Cc: Graeme Geldenhuys <graemeg.lists at gmail.com>,  
> jonas.maebe at elis.ugent.be
> Subject: Re: [fpc-pascal] fpcUnit todo list
>
> I'm unable to post in the mailing list this evening, I constantly  
> get an
> error, so I'm sending you a private mail. Excuse me for this.
>
>> Florian Klaempfl wrote:
>> First, I would prefer a patch to the fpcunit which makes the unit  
>> itself
>> indenpendend from other stuff (xml) so it can be used in the fpc  
>> test suite
>> :)
>
> This is my opinion too. fpcunit.pp is independent from xml, you can
> build a simple runner for the tests that does not rely on other stuff.
> But fpcunit.pp depends on classes and sysutils, the whole framework is
> built on exceptions and classes, and these are not available in early
> ports to new platforms. So fpcunit cannot be used as a regression
> testsuite for the compiler and low level rtl stuff. Btw, the fpc
> testsuite is very advanced in it's simplicity and low dependencies and
> it's probably the main thing that made fpc great. The first thing that
> made me to begin using fpc (well before I started working on fpcunit)
> was the existence of the testsuite covering all aspects of the  
> compiler.
> I trust fpc more than Delphi because of this  :)
> Of course to test the fcl and maybe some high level rtl classes  
> fpcunit
> is very handy, it simplifies even more the writing of powerful  
> tests for
> the fcl classes, some are using it as a Test Driven Development tool,
> others may need it to refactor existing fcl classes, some would use it
> as simple regression tests, some even for functional (acceptance)  
> tests
> (Vincent has a lot of fantasy for finding new uses for it, e.g. he  
> uses
> it to assure that the Lazarus examples compile  :) .
> So I agree with Florian and Michael, I would like to integrate as much
> as possible fpcunit in the existing fpc testsuite environment in
> addition to the existing fpc testsuite.
> In my opinion it's a pity that the fpcunit tests built by the
> programmers that use it to test some new fcl classes are sitting on  
> the
> programmer's computer instead of being part of the fpc official
> testsuite and run each night against the problems that may arise with
> changes applied each day to the fcl.
>
> If output format of the results is a concern for some programmers my
> best bet would be to use simple latex as a reporting tool, so the
> results can be easily converted in pdf and html (much more powerful  
> imo
> then xml), thus avoiding any dependency on xml in the test runner.
>
>> The easiest thing to do is to include fpcunit itself in fcl/inc.
>
>> All the units around it can be done in fcl/fpcunit, which is built at
>> a later stage.
>>
>> Michael.
>  I agree with this.
>
> Dean