Re: kind of unit testing framework for StepTalk

[Mateu Batle]

Hi,

Great, please include it in the distribution. I think is useful either as
an example and as an application. I have already put it under
Applications, in our internal distribution.

At the moment, I don't think it is needed to improve StepTalk for the 
StepUnit
application, it is quite useful so far, and I could reach the goal with 
some workarounds.
Anyway, I am quite new to unit testing practice, so I would like if someone
checks and comments this initial implementation.

BTW, I forgot to mention that it is recommended to appy the patch 2950 
to StepTalk
(if not already in the CVS repository) in order to use some of the 
stepunit methods.

cheers
 Mateu


Stefan Urbanek wrote:

> Hi,
>
> On 2004-04-19 11:50:31 +0200 Mateu Batle <address@hidden> wrote:
>
> > Hi everybody,
> >
> > I have implemented an Smalltalk script in StepTalk to help in the
> > testing of the Objective C code. I think one of the great points of
> > scripting languages is to help in testing code. Given the easiness
> > to connect Objective C and StepTalk scripts, I find the script
> > useful for basic testing needs.
>
> Great. what do you think about including it in StepTalk Examples?
>
> > Since, StepTalk's Smalltalk is not very powerful it is not possible
> > to follow the normal conventions to define new tests, e.g. subclass
> > from TestCase, etc
>
>
> Well ... StepTalk's smalltalk is not in fact Smalltalk as an 
> environment, but just as a language. StepTalk was/is not supposed to 
> provide full Smalltalk object model with classes and stuff. However, 
> the plan was/is to create a prototype based environment with 
> "prototype objects' Basic skeleton is already implemented in the form 
> of ScriptObjects, where one can define an object with custom methods 
> written in custom language (see Testing/sobjtest.st). What is missing?
>
> 1. inheritance of behaviour (like in the Sun's Self prototpe based 
> language/environment) - easy to implement
> 2. "instance" variables of objects - not quite easy to implement
>
> And the main show stopper is lack of a user friendly development tool 
> (either gui or commandline) for constructing such objects. :-( Even it 
> would be not too dificult to create one... I have hand-written plans 
> somewhere, so if someone is interested i can redraw them and provide a 
> PDF or something.
>
> Best regards,
>
> Stefan
>
> PS: Btw. with StepTalk it would be not difficult to create interactive 
> testing environment (use test cases interactively or send messages 
> like in a IM client to a distant objective-c environment). However, 
> implementation of distant environments is not even started. Usual 
> lack-of-time issue...