Re: unit test framework

[Masatake YAMATO <yamato@redhat.com>]

> On Tue, Mar 23, 2010 at 10:02 AM,  <joakim@verona.se> wrote:
>>
>> I write try to write unit tests for my elisp, and it would be much
>> easier if there was a canonical unit test framework in Emacs.
>>
>> I have written some tests for CEDET, which doesnt really use a
>> framework, and should be included in Emacs(I havent looked at the merged
>> version yet). I have also written some tests in elunit for other
>> packages.
>>
>> I'm currently writing some code that would benefit from simulation of
>> keyboard input, in particular code that uses read, read-number,
>> completing-read etc. Some of the contenders listed above surely does
>> this, right?
>>
>> Anyway, maybe we should make a list of requirements for a unit test
>> package for inclusion. Heres my take:
>>
>> - possibility to generate unit tests reports in test runs during "make"

I've extended ert.el for the purpose.

     http://github.com/masatake/ert/commit/5f1bc45c5c54e1f95e9e8ba787f3f66b33ddc583

The patch was improved based on the comment from the original author, 
Christian M. Ohler. I asked him to merge my patch to his source tree, but I have got 
no response yet.

>> - at least rudimentary user input simulation, to test read, read-number,
>> completing-read etc.
> 
> 
> I have written some extensions to ert.el that allows running commands
> in the test function (ie calling relevant hooks etc).
> 
> 
>> - some way of isolating test runs from normal operations
> 
> 
> I have some small things that starts a new Emacs instance for the tests.
>
> 
> 
>> - good error reporting, so that you dont have to spend hours in edebug needlessly
> 
> 
> ert.el have good interactive reporting (that needs some usability
> enhancements, like menu entries), but not so much for saving to file
> (or maybe I have just missed that part).
> 
> 
>> - convenient way of defining and running tests, in group or one-by-one
> 
> 
> ert.el does it by regexp matching the names of the test functions.
> 
> 

Masatake YAMATO