Re: [boost] Re: Testing with various compilers [was operators.hpp ...]

From: Ed Brey (brey_at_[hidden])
Date: 2000-06-19 08:31:16

From: "Beman Dawes" <beman_at_[hidden]>
>
> Third question for each compiler is how do you tell if a compilation
has
> errors?  For VC++ I am grepping the output for "error" for lack of a
better
> way.

A solution to this problem is a more complete test.  Rather than
looking for compiler errors, the script can try to run the compiled
test harness and then compare the output against a known good output.
If the compiler thinks there are errors in the library, the test will
fail since there won't be an executable of the test harness.

Testing run-time output is something we should do anyway, given that
we have experience with compilers occasionally accepting code and then
generating incorrect binaries.  The amount of work required should be
minimal, since the thoroughness of the test harness required to test
the library should also adequately test the compiler.