[asdf-devel] ASDF test-op question

[Daniel Herring]

On Mon, 5 Oct 2009, Robert Goldman wrote:
> Daniel Herring wrote:
>> On Mon, 5 Oct 2009, Robert Goldman wrote:
>>> Gary King wrote:
>>>> Hi Robert,
>>>>
>>>>> I don't believe that this is a general solution, for two reasons:
>>>> I agree that it isn't a general solution especially since there is no
>>>> interface/API for clients to do anything with an ASDF operation! It
>>>> might, however, be a small step in the right direction.
>>> An alternative solution would be to provide a :stream or :filename init
>>> argument for the test-op operation class and bind a dynamic variable
>>> around every perform, making the stream or filename available for
>>> writing....
>>
>> Why serialize the data?  Could we design a structured API to be used by
>> other tools?
...
>> Of course ASDF doesn't need to reinvent testing; there are plenty of
>> existing frameworks to choose from.
>> http://www.cliki.net/test_framework
>>
>
> What I am after is an ASDF test-op that will adapt as well as possible
> to the widest possible set of testing frameworks.  I agree that we
> should not attempt to reinvent testing.
>
> That is why I have been suggesting that we provide a test operation that
> binds a stream --- because most of the test frameworks I have worked
> with provide a test report, rather than returning results.
>
> I don't believe that having the test-op return a result will work, given
> the current ASDF execution model.
...

Given that, how about deprecating/removing test-op?  Then people can 
continue to simply load sysname-test.asd and run tests however they want.

I see value in creating a widely accepted testing framework.  I don't see 
the benefit in simply binding a stream variable.

Later,
Daniel