Finished this up this morning. Here it is. A basic, simple, documented testing interface. Its on its way up to CPAN. As always, you can grab a copy from http://www.pobox.com/~schwern/src/ I had to nix the idea of not making the user declare the number of tests. It made a dependency on Test::Harness 1.20, and I'd rather the test author not have to download anything. Its bad enough that their programs will have to depend on Test::Simple. I've also declared the minimum Perl to be 5.005. This is mostly because I've used the Test module to test Test::Simple. I believe Test was first introduced somewhere in the 5.004 devel track. I want to push the minimum back to 5.004, so I'll be replacing Test with something else in future versions. Oh yeah, Test::More doesn't exist. That's what the discussed Testing module will probably morph into. NAME Test::Simple - Basic utilities for writing tests. SYNOPSIS use Test::Simple tests => 1; ok( $foo eq $bar, 'foo is bar' ); DESCRIPTION This is an extremely simple, extremely basic module for writing tests suitable for CPAN modules and other pursuits. The basic unit of Perl testing is the ok. For each thing you want to test your program will print out an "ok" or "not ok" to indicate pass or fail. You do this with the ok() function (see below). The only other constraint is you must predeclare how many tests you plan to run. This is in case something goes horribly wrong during the test and your test program aborts, or skips a test or whatever. You do this like so: use Test::Simple tests => 23; You must have a plan. ok ok( $foo eq $bar, $name ); ok( $foo eq $bar ); ok() is given an expression (in this case "$foo eq $bar"). If its true, the test passed. If its false, it didn't. That's about it. ok() prints out either "ok" or "not ok" along with a test number (it keeps track of that for you). # This produces "ok 1 - Hell not yet frozen over" (or not ok) ok( get_temperature($hell) > 0, 'Hell not yet frozen over' ); If you provide a $name, that will be printed along with the "ok/not ok" to make it easier to find your test when if fails (just search for the name). It also makes it easier for the next guy to understand what your test is for. Its highly recommended you use test names. All tests are run in scalar context. So this: ok( @stuff, 'I have some stuff' ); will do what you mean (fail if stuff is empty). Test::Simple will start by printing number of tests run in the form "1..M" (so "1..5" means you're going to run 5 tests). This strange format lets Test::Harness know how many tests you plan on running in case something goes horribly wrong. If all your tests passed, Test::Simple will exit with zero (which is normal). If anything failed it will exit with how many failed. If you run less (or more) tests than you planned, the missing (or extras) will be considered failures. If no tests were ever run Test::Simple will throw a warning and exit with -1. This module is by no means trying to be a complete testing system. Its just to get you started. Once you're off the ground its recommended you look at the Test::More manpage. EXAMPLE Here's an example of a simple .t file for the fictional Film module. use Test::Simple tests => 5; use Film; # What you're testing. my $btaste = Film->new({ Title => 'Bad Taste', Director => 'Peter Jackson', Rating => 'R', NumExplodingSheep => 1 }); ok( defined($btaste) and ref $btaste eq 'Film', 'new() works' ); ok( $btaste->Title eq 'Bad Taste', 'Title() get' ); ok( $btsate->Director eq 'Peter Jackson', 'Director() get' ); ok( $btaste->Rating eq 'R', 'Rating() get' ); ok( $btaste->NumExplodingSheep == 1, 'NumExplodingSheep() get' ); It will produce output like this: 1..5 ok 1 - new() works ok 2 - Title() get ok 3 - Director() get not ok 4 - Rating() get ok 5 - NumExplodingSheep() get Indicating the Film::Rating() method is broken. HISTORY This module was conceived while talking with Tony Bowden in his kitchen one night about the problems I was having writing some really complicated feature into the new Testing module. He observed that the main problem is not dealing with these edge cases but that people hate to write tests at all. What was needed was a dead simple module that took all the hard work out of testing and was really, really easy to learn. This is it. AUTHOR Idea by Tony Bowden, code by Michael G Schwern <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, wardrobe by Calvin Klein. SEE ALSO the Test::More manpage More testing functions! Once you outgrow Test::Simple, look at Test::More. the Test manpage The original Perl testing module. the Test::Unit manpage Elaborate unit testing. the Pod::Tests manpage, the SelfTest manpage Embed tests in your code! the Test::Harness manpage Interprets the output of your test program. -- Michael G. Schwern <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> http://www.pobox.com/~schwern/ Perl6 Quality Assurance <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Kwalitee Is Job One MERV GRIFFIN!
