Re: [boost] Policy-based designs considered harmful?

From: Peter Dimov (pdimov_at_[hidden])
Date: 2002-01-22 08:35:35

From: "Andrei Alexandrescu" <andrewalex_at_[hidden]>
> > In addition, the predefined policies need to be tested as well. This can
> be
> > done policy by policy if each policy has a formal specification and
their
> > behavior is not affected by the parent SmartPtr (which implies no
> > interaction between policies.)
>
>
> I think that that's the main point. As long as policies are orthogonal,
they
> can be tested in isolation. For example, if CheckingPolicy doesn't
interact
> with any other policy, a suite can test all CheckingPolicy implementations
> using some arbitrary choices for the other policies.

Yes; that'd be the way I'd approach the problem: as a white box.

But a professional black box tester makes no assumptions; when a policy is
intended to work as a SmartPtr parameter, it has to be tested as a SmartPtr
parameter.

--
Peter Dimov
Multi Media Ltd.