Re: [Xmlunit-general] xmlunit.org

[Stefan B. <bo...@ap...>]

On 2015-01-05, Stefan Bodewig wrote:

>> -------------
>> Diff & DiffBuilder.
>> -------------
>> I'm now finished with Diff & DiffBuilder.

> I'll try to have a look and provide feedback soon.

What I had in mind is slightly different, but not much.  Let me explain
what I would have done differently and we can then figure out together
what seems to be the best.

* Comparison is not good enough to capture a difference as the
  ComparisonResult is missing.  So Diff should use a (new) class
  containing Comparison and outcome.
* I hadn't thought of ComparisonFormatter but your IDE example is an
  intriguing one.  My choice would be to have a toString method with a
  ComparisonFormatter argument rather than an instance variable.  The
  no-arg toString would always use the default fomatter and
  ComparisonMatcher could pass in a different one when needed.
* nit-pick I'd use Iterable rather than List as return value
* I'd likely remove Diff#getFirstDifference completely
* there can only be one DifferenceEvaluator, so the var-args versions
  are not needed - we may want to have a var-args
  withDifferenceListeners in DiffBuilder
* DiffBuilder may want an option to short-cut the comparison as soon as
  the outcome is clear.  I.e. return CRITICAL from the
  DifferenceEvaluator as soon as a DIFFERNT (or potentially a SIMILAR)
  result has been received.
* my design would have ComparisonMatcher be a Matcher<Diff> and force
  people to create the Diff using DiffBuilder

  Diff diffResult = DiffBuilder...
  assertThat(diffResult, DiffMatcher.isSimilar());

  that way we didn't have to duplicate ignoreWhitespace and friends in
  two or three builders.
  Maybe have a DiffMatcher and a ComparisonMatcher as separate classes
  with ComparisonMatcher being Matcher<Source>?
  This would also reduce the need for Input.fromUnknown.
* DiffBuilder should be in the builder package

While writing this list I've come to realize the DifferenceEvaluator
contract is probably wrong.  In order to short-cut a comparison it has
to modify the comparison result.  This likely means we need something
akin to ComparisonController of 1.x.  WDYT?

Stefan