Re: [boost] [test] BOOST_TEST - universal testing tool

Subject: Re: [boost] [test] BOOST_TEST - universal testing tool
From: Andrzej Krzemienski (akrzemi1_at_[hidden])
Date: 2012-11-06 05:29:10

Hi Gennadiy,
The new interface looks very attractive. Below I enclose two suggestions
that are orthogonal (I think) to your changes, but I thought it was a good
time to suggest them.

2012/11/4 Gennadiy Rozental <rogeeff_at_[hidden]>

>
> 2. BOOST_CHECK_CLOSE, BOOST_CHECK_CLOSE_FRACTION, BOOST_CHECK_SMALL
>
> We can deal with these by introducing couple special tags:
>
> BOOST_TEST(a == 1.5, unit_test::tolerance(1e-6) );
> BOOST_TEST(a == 0.003, unit_test::percent_tolerance(1e-6) );
> BOOST_TEST(a, unit_test::small(1e-3) );
>
> On a plus side we'll be able to use these in new previously unavailable
> way:
> BOOST_TEST(a > 1.1, unit_test::tolerance(1e-6) );
>
> This would test that value of a either > 1.1 or within a fraction tolerance
> of it.
>

In my job, we are using Boost.Test in a commercial app. We are doing (and
testing) some basic computations on physical quantities. It turned out that
for around 95% of the checks on floating-point values we need the very same
(percent) tolerance. And it is inconvenient to have to type the same
constant time and again. It would be nice if there was a way to define (as
an option) a "default tolerance". With the solution you propose above,
having to type this tag "unit_test::percent_tolerance" would incur even
more "syntactic noise" in cases where the tolerance is "obvious" to the
reader. Here, the concept of default tolerance would be even more useful.
Although I am not sure if this is doable. But perhaps it is: if I am able
to configure the framework so that when it sees a check on floating-point
numbers it assumes we check with tolerance: default one.

What do you think?

4. BOOST_CHECK_EQUAL_COLLECTIONS
>
> I think using overloading of equality comparisons we should be able to
> support
> this directly:
>
> BOOST_TEST( expr == std::vector<int>{1,2,3,4});
>

Will that work? I.e., in case of any two ranges, not necessarily
containers? If there is some even more clever (than my idea) suggestion to
do it it is even better. What I was missing from Boost.Test for quite a
while was some additional check that would accept as input two ranges
rather than four iterators. "Range" R in this sense is any object for which
expressions begin(R) and end(R) are valid: a container, an array, a pair of
iterators. I often wanted to compare a vector returned by value from one
expression with an array of values, and could not do it without introducing
unnecessary additional variables:

I had to write:

  int reference[] = {1, 2, 4};
  auto&& answer = FindAnswer();
  BOOST_CHECK_EQUAL_COLLECTIONS(begin(reference), end(reference),
begin(answer), end(answer));

I would like to write:

  int reference[] = {1, 2, 4};
  BOOST_CHECK_EQUAL_COLLECTIONS(reference, FindAnswer());

Or (if this is doable):

  BOOST_CHECK_EQUAL_COLLECTIONS(FindAnswer(), {1, 2, 4});

Regards,
&rzej