From: Eric Schwartz <emschwar@...>
Date: 2003-06-03T05:08:10+09:00
Subject: Unit Testing Style

I know I should have written my tests first, but I didn't, so now I'm
trying to do them after the fact.  I'm running into a few style
questions, though, not being used to the Test::Unit style of testing:

1) I have several test cases that do multiple assert_* calls.  Is that
   a Good Thing, a Bad Thing, or not something that's even worth
   worrying about?  Usually it's things like "Was the file created?
   Does it contain data of the right format?  Is the data correct?"

   In one case, however, the test case is "run a command remotely that
   logs to yet another remote database, and verify the command was
   run, output was generated, logged to the right database with the
   right timestamp, from the right machine, etc., etc., etc."

2) How do people generally feel about interactivity in test cases?  I
   have a method that should send email to a random address.  Since
   I'd like everybody on my team to be able to run my tests, I can't
   use a specific address, as that address might not (probably won't)
   exist on their machine, and depending on which OS they're running,
   the mail spool dirs will be in a different location.

   My idea is to have the test ask for the address by stdin, and also
   ask the user to verify the contents manually.  The user's response
   will determine if the test passes or fails.

Other than that, I'm enjoying Test::Unit quite a lot.

-=Eric
-- 
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		-- Blair Houghton.