On Thu, 14 Apr 2011 12:48:26 -0400, Andrei Alexandrescu
<seewebsiteforem...@erdani.org> wrote:
On 4/14/11 9:03 AM, Steven Schveighoffer wrote:
Sometimes, I worry that my unit tests or asserts aren't running. Every
once in a while, I have to change one to fail to make sure that code is
compiling (this is especially true when I'm doing version statements or
templates). It would be nice if there was a -assertprint mode which
showed asserts actually running (only for the module compiled with that
switch, of course).
Could this be achieved within the language?
I think you need to do it at the compiler level to make it useful. For
example, an assert like:
assert(container.length == 5);
To print this out properly, I'd want to see that the assert passed, but
also what the test was. I think there is already some work being
commissioned (if not already in progress) on dissecting the expression
into string form in the compiler.
I don't know how you would do this in a DRY fashion without compiler
help. You can't use a mixin string because mixins are compiled in the
context where you mix them in.
I outlined a possible solution in a response to Daniel that I believe:
1. allows one to 'see' an example working that just uses asserts
2. allows one to run specific unit tests to make sure they are working
(via names)
3. does not require any changes to any asserts in existance.
I think this would be an awesome feature. One of the cool things about
the new way phobos runs unit tests (one module at a time) is that if a
particular test fails, I can just build/run it over and over again until
it passes. This is huge since to run the full phobos unit tests can take
a while.
To just be able to select on the command line how to run unit tests (I
think overtaking the command line args for unittest-enabled code is
reasonable) would be a great tool for debugging code via unittests and
assert printouts.
It also gives us a smooth transition into using ddoc examples as unit
tests.
-Steve
