RE: [Cppunit-devel] ExtendedTextTestRunner

[Philippe F. <P....@OB...>]

> From: Baptiste Lepilleur [mailto:gai...@fr...]
>
> CppUnit 1.9.10 already provides similar functionalities 
> through the generic TestRunner class.

Hi Baptiste.

If you are coding a new version of CppUnit, I have some suggestion for it.
There are a few things that I dislike in CppUnit, which has lead me to code
my own testrunner and assertions. I attach the files so that you can look at
it.

The differences with CppUnit are explained in the headers, which I copy
here:

/**
 * I wrote this class because I was dissatisfied with the text runner of
 * CppUnit. This works with CppUnit 1.8.0 I don't think it work with any
other version.
 *
 * The goal of PhilTestRunner was for me to make the output of the testing
 * more readable and useful. It has the following characteristics:
 *
 * - it prints the name of the suite being run and separate two suites with
a
 *   blank line, so that you know better in which suite you are.
 *
 * - it prints the name of the test being run, so that when you have some
kind
 *   of debug output, you know to which test it belongs.
 *
 * - the failures are reported in detail while the suite still runs,
directly
 *   in the offending test. This differs from CppUnit which reports them at
 *   the end. This is very useful if you have test suites that take a long
 *   time. By placing the most offending test in the first position of the
 *   suite, you don't need to wait for the whole test to finish before
 *   spotting and understanding the failure.
 *
 * - on windows, the failures are also printed in the Debug window, using
 *   OutputDebugString. This output is in the Visual C++ debug format, so
 *   that pressing F4 (even during test run) sets your cursor directly on
the
 *   right line, in the right file. Very useful!
 *
 * - it prints a short but nice summary at the end, with the number of test
 *   run, failed, and the percentage.
 *   
 * The output of a run looks like this:

--- suite TestFoo
        + testOne
        + testTwo
d:\software\cppunit-1.8.0\testunitexample\testfoo.cpp(40) : Failure!
Expected: 7, but was: 2.

        + testThree
d:\software\cppunit-1.8.0\testunitexample\testfoo.cpp(45) : Failure!
Uh uh, this test failed

--- suite TestMyClass

 *
 * All you need to use in this class is the PhilTestRunner. Ignore the other
 * classes, there are only used within PhilTestRunner. I package
 * everything in one header file and one source file to make distribution
more
 * convenient.
 *
 * To use the PhilTestRunner, just do like with any other runner :

	PhilTestRunner runner;
	runner.addTest(
CppUnit::TestFactoryRegistry::getRegistry().makeTest() );
	return runner.run( "", false, true, true );

 *
 *
 * Send any comment, bug, suggestion, patch to ph...@fr...
 *
 */


and

/**
 * This is a set of replacements for the default asserts of CppUnit. This
 * works with CppUnit 1.8.0 . Thank to the architecture of CppUnit, it
 * integrates seemlessly.
 *
 * The differences are:
 *
 * - my asserts are shorter and easier to type because I do not prepend them
 *   by CPPUNIT_ and because I use mainly non capitalised letters. This does
 *   not respect the convention that macros should be in capitalised letters
 *   but it saves me a lot of pain, so it is worthwile.
 *
 * - the order of equality assertion is reversed, because it is more
intuitive
 *   for me to have the actual value before the expected one. So
 *   CPPUNIT_ASSERT_EQUALS( 1, a ) becomes checkEquals( a, 1 )
 *
 * - I display the name of the expression being tested inside the failure,
not
 *   just the value that did not match.
 *
 * - for int equality asserts, I display the int value in decimal and 
 *   hexadecimal
 *
 * - I support native string equality tests, which avoids the following
 *   drawbacks of CppUnit:
 *
 *   	1. With Visual C++, CPPUNIT_ASSERT_EQUAL( std::string("a"), "a" )
 *   	won't compile because the it does not know which template to use.
 *
 *   	2. If you do a 
 *
	char * s1 = "abcd";
	char s2[10];
	strcpy( s2, s1);
	CPPUNIT_ASSERT_EQUAL( s1, (char *) s2 );

 * 		CppUnit will report a failure with the unhelpful message : 
 *
 * 		"Expected: abcd, but was: abcd." 
 *
 * 		This is because CppUnit has unintuitively compared the two
pointers
 * 		instead of comparing the strings. My functions know how to
cast a
 * 		(char *) to a string
 *
 *
 * - when displaying an error with a string, my strings are in quote, so
that
 *   you can see precicely where it begins and finish. No more
 *   your-strings-are-not-equal-but-you-do-not-know-why-because-you-have-
 *   not-seen-this-naughty-space-at-the-end-of-one-of-them.
 *
 * - for string equality asserts, I support case sensitive and insenstive
 *   check.
 *
 * - I support also a assertion to test whether a string contains another
one,
 *   with adjustable case sensitivity
 *
 * - if you define QT_DLL, I support tests on QString too
 *
 * 
 * This list of macros available are :
 * check( assertion ) for bool
 * checkEquals( actual, expected ) for int, long, double, std::string,
QString and char *
 * checkNotEquals( actual, notExpected ) for the same types as checkEquals
 * checkDeltaEquals( doubleValue1, doubleValue2 ) for double
 * checkIEquals( s1, s2 )  for std::string, QString, (char *)
 * checkContains( s1, s2 ) for std::string, QString, (char *)
 * checkIContains( s1, s2 )  for std::string, QString, (char *)
 *
 * Send any bug, comment, suggestion, patch to ph...@fr...
 *
 */ 

It would probably make sense to add this to CppUnit. I am probably not the
only one who have felt these problems. I know my colleagues prefer to use my
addition than the standard CppUnit way.

I attach the files since they are quite short.

Could all people here provide feedback ?

	regards,

	Philippe