Re: [boost] Boost Test Tools Library Proposal

From: Beman Dawes (beman_at_[hidden])
Date: 2000-12-11 11:08:42

Ullrich Koethe wrote:

 >Beman Dawes wrote:
 >> ...  Perhaps the reason we haven't made more progress on such ideas
 >> in the past is that there are three needs (at least as seen by me):
 >>
 >> 1) A main() replacement for console apps which turns as many problems 
as
 >> possible into a uniform return code.  Note that while this is useful 
for
 >> testing, it is also very useful for production programs, and so 
shouldn't
 >> carry a lot of baggage related only to testing.  It is helpful if it is
 >> very easy to retrofit to legacy programs, too.
 >>
 >
 >unittest.h provides a test class which has a test routine that executes
 >all registered tests. It is up to the programmer where the call to the
 >test routine goes. Tests report their results in a string plus a count
 >of failed tests. So one can use unittest.h in a command line tool and
 >call tests in main() or in test_main(), but it's also possible to put it
 >in a GUI based tool, where it is invoked by pressing a button, and
 >results are reported in a window.

So that ("possible to put in a GUI based tool...") become need (4).  Seems 
reasonable to me.

 > ...
 >
 >I hope my remarks shed some light on this.

Yes.  I'll have to think about it a bit, but it seems it should be possible 
to supply the full features of unittest.h more or less unchanged, yet come 
a bit closer to test_tools.hpp and test_tools_main.hpp for the simpler (1) 
and (2) needs.

--Beman