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Moin,
On Friday 28 October 2005 22:34, Christopher H. Laco wrote:
> Ovid wrote:
> > The code is designed well enough that adding new features is quick
> > and easy. Unfortunately, whenever I need to change my code I fire up
> > a Web server and view the results in the browser and then write the
> > tests after I've written the code (this is closely related to When
> > test-driven development just won't do). This is because XML and XHTML
> > are just text. I need to see the output. I've been finding more and
> > more that small changes in my code are making huge changes in the
> > output and trying to continuously update the tests to exactly match
> > the XML, XSLT and XHTML using Test::XML and XML::XPath has led to a
> > serious productivity drop.
> >
> > I'm considering just using Test::WWW::Mechanize to do integration
> > testing through a Web server I run in the tests. This will be much
> > faster and allow me to get my development speed back up. However, I'd
> > be skipping the unit testing of the output. I'll catch the bugs but
> > it will likely take me longer to track them down.
>
> I feel your pain. The test suite for Handel has xml/tt output tests for
> its AxKit and Template Toolkit plugins. I've got oodles of template
> pages using the components whos output I compare to static .out files
> that contain the expected output.
>
> Everytime I write a new plugin, or a new tag in the plugin, I waste
> tons of time just writing the tests for them. So far, I've been good
> about writing the tests before I write the code, but it takes forever
> and I rarely get the tests right the first time.
>
> I'm curious to see what comes out of your question. I'm in the same
> boat.
I am somewhat in the same boat with Graph::Easy - the t/ascii.t script
tests rendering of graphs in ASCII, ala:
[ A ] -> [ B ]
is transformed into:
# echo "[Test] -> [This] ..> [ Now ]" | perl examples/as_ascii
+------+ +------+ +-----+
| Test | --> | This | ..> | Now |
+------+ +------+ +-----+
While this works mostly fine for ASCII, the HTML/SVG is undertested
because the text/code output can change quite radically, while still
rendering/representing the same graph. And of course I do want to test
that the end result is the right one, not that the generated SVG/HTML
code is a specific example.
So everytime I change the HTML template/output, I need to fiddle back a
host of tests...
Best wishes,
Tels
- --
Signed on Fri Oct 28 23:33:31 2005 with key 0x93B84C15.
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casted 'Dispel clothes'?" - The Order of the Stick issue #26
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