[TIP] Ideology

[C. Titus Brown]

On Tue, Apr 21, 2009 at 10:40:45AM -0400, Doug Hellmann wrote:
-> On Apr 21, 2009, at 10:19 AM, Jesse Noller wrote:
-> >On Apr 21, 2009, at 10:11 AM, "C. Titus Brown" <ctb at msu.edu> wrote:
-> >
-> >>Over on pygr-dev, I just came up with this bon mot:
-> >>
-> >>"""
-> >>To paraphrase the regexp saying: you have a problem with your tests,
-> >>so
-> >>you make your test framework more complicated.  Now you have TWO
-> >>problems...
-> >>"""
-> >>
-> >>We're talking about making a number of custom extensions to unittest
-> >>and
-> >>modifications to our test runner, and in doing so we're adding
-> >>significantly to the complexity of our test runner.  That Seems Bad.
-> >>
-> >>Have other people run into problems doing this or should I stop
-> >>worrying
-> >>and just shut up?  (hah)
-> >
-> >Better the complexity lie in the runner an framework than in the
-> >tests. So long as the execution environment can be recreated and run
-> >outside of the framework, I would say you're ok.
-> >
-> >Tests should be simple and straightforward to write, if that means
-> >making the executor more complex, well so be it. :)
-> 
-> I'll second that.  Our tests above the unit level take some fairly  
-> complicated fixtures (database settings, lots of filesystem objects  
-> with peculiar permissions, etc.).  Trying to build all of that into  
-> the test itself lead to a lot of pain, so we moved to separate fixture  
-> classes that are easier to reuse.
-> 
-> The more you can isolate the ugly parts to make it easy for test  
-> authors, the more (and better) tests you'll have.

But don't you then have to debug your test framework?

--titus
-- 
C. Titus Brown, ctb at msu.edu