From: Ryan Davis <ryand-ruby@...>
Date: 2011-03-27T05:12:51+09:00
Subject: Re: Clearer errors in 1.9's minitest


On Mar 25, 2011, at 21:13 , spiralofhope wrote:

> Hello!
> 
> I've been getting back into Ruby, and one of the major changes I've
> made is to switch to 1.9 and to strictly use tests.  I'm using the
> minitest[1] in 1.9 (via rvm[2])
> 
> It's nice, and I'm pleased at what I've been able to accomplish with
> its help.
> 
> However, it's been long enough that one issue has pissed me off
> to no end and I need some advice on it.  I'm not sure how to describe
> what I'm looking for concisely enough to search for it effectively, so
> I thought I'd sign up and ask.
> 
> When an error is caught, its output is not as helpful as I wish it to
> be.
> 
> Example script:
> 
> ----------
> require 'minitest/autorun'
> 
> class Test_Markup < MiniTest::Unit::TestCase
> 
>  def test()
>    assert_equal(
>      ( 'asdfghjkl asdfghjkl asdfghjkl asdfghjkl asdfghjkl ' ),
>      ( 'qwertyuiop qwertyuiop qwertyuiop qwertyuiop qwertyuiop ' ),
>    )
>  end
> 
> end

You don't actually write your code that way, do you?

> Example output: [...]
> 
> How challenging would this be to implement?  If there were some way for
> me to "get at" that text, I could use existing and very mature external
> tools to do exactly what I want.  e.g. if I were given one big array
> with sub-arrays, within which is all the error information.. then I
> could do some real magic.
> 
> I'd really rather not use an alternative to minitest, mostly because
> the syntax used in them makes me want to scoop my brain out with a
> teaspoon.
> 
> Point me to websites, documentation or source code.  Any and all help
> is appreciated.

You already have the source code. Have you read it? It is called minitest for a reason. Dig in.



> % ./x.rb
> Run options: --seed 34017
> 
> # Running tests:
> 
> F
> 
> Finished tests in 0.000610s, 1639.3443 tests/s, 1639.3443 assertions/s.
> 
>   1) Failure:
> test_example(TestMarkup) [./x.rb:8]:
> Expected "asdfghjkl asdfghjkl asdfghjkl asdfghjkl asdfghjkl ", not "qwertyuiop qwertyuiop qwertyuiop qwertyuiop qwertyuiop ".
> 
> 1 tests, 1 assertions, 1 failures, 0 errors, 0 skips

versus:

> % sudo gem install ZenTest
> % ./x.rb  | unit_diff  -u
> Run options: --seed 4937
> # Running tests:
> 
> F
> 
> Finished tests in 0.000641s, 1560.0624 tests/s, 1560.0624 assertions/s.
> 
> Run options: --seed 4937
> 
> 1) Failure:
> test_example(TestMarkup) [./x.rb:8]:
> --- /var/folders/x-/x-z1ojKcE+CpI1+qvSPWTk+++TU/-Tmp-/expect20110326-21801-yrc96l-0	2011-03-26 13:11:21.000000000 -0700
> +++ /var/folders/x-/x-z1ojKcE+CpI1+qvSPWTk+++TU/-Tmp-/butwas20110326-21801-zn2uft-0	2011-03-26 13:11:21.000000000 -0700
> @@ -1 +1 @@
> -"asdfghjkl asdfghjkl asdfghjkl asdfghjkl asdfghjkl "
> +"qwertyuiop qwertyuiop qwertyuiop qwertyuiop qwertyuiop "
> 
> 1 tests, 1 assertions, 1 failures, 0 errors, 0 skips