From: Randy Lawrence <jm@...>
Date: 2004-07-11T15:28:48+09:00
Subject: Re: Unit Testing Without Frameworks

Sean O'Dell wrote:
> On Tuesday 06 July 2004 13:55, Lothar Scholz wrote:
> 
>>And to be honest i stopped unit tests, because the current libraries
>>GUI, networking, filesystems do not support them well enough. Hope
>>that this will improve in the future.
> 
> 
> I felt the same way.  I got back into unit testing in a way I don't think most 
> people would understand.  I dropped frameworks altogether.  I started just 
> running anything found in a "tests" sub-directory of whatever project I was 
> working on.
> 
> Actually, I do have a framework of a sort: a single ruby file I use to launch 
> tests that match a given name pattern.  Here's the entire "framework":
> 
> #!/usr/bin/ruby
> 
> pattern = nil
> pattern = Regexp.new(ARGV.shift) if (ARGV.length > 0)
> 
> Dir["tests/*"].each do | filename |
>   next if (filename =~ /^\./)
>   
>   test = filename.clone
>   test.slice!(/^.+\//)
>   test.slice!(/\.rb$/)
> 
>   next if (not test =~ /^test_/)
>   test.slice!(/^test_/)
>   
>   next if (pattern and not test =~ Regexp.new("^#{pattern}$"))
>   
>   print("---------- #{test}' ----------\n")
>   system(filename)  
> end
> 
> print("---------- DONE ----------\n")
> 
> 
> 
> Generally, in my tests, I just do whatever and let exceptions happen where 
> they happen, and every test usually ends with a statement like:
> 
> p a == expected_value
> 
> So my entire "report" consists of a series of true or falses.  When a false 
> occurs, I just track it down and fix whatever caused the bug.
> 
> Perhaps it's just my need for simplicity that makes this work better for me 
> than a framework.  Or perhaps current frameworks don't have the ability to 
> really anticipate what everyone needs or wants.  Whatever the reason, I am 
> really into unit testing now.
> 
> 	Sean O'Dell
> 
> 

I used to feel the same until I came across this page.  It's the best 10 
minutes I've ever invested on the topic of unit testing.

	http://www.rubygarden.org/ruby?UsingTestUnit

I evaluated but did not use unit-testing frameworks in Java and C++ 
because they seemed like too much hassle.

The above page describes a scenario using Test::Unit that is so simple, 
I bet it's even easier than many homegrown testing methods.