Hi Tim, On 16/01/2008, Tim Ellison <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Sian January wrote: > > It's not really about using something of a certain size, it's more about > > making sure we're testing with as wide a range as possible of different > > bytecode combinations, class file attributes and things like inner > classes > > and java 5 features etc. > > Where do you envisage finding these packed archives to put into the test > suite? At the moment I am using Harmony modules, but I'm assuming that apart from the space issue it would be ok to use any Apache licenced code. > > Also if I generate source material I'm only > > testing things I've thought of (which is more likely to work anyway > since I > > wrote the code). Using large real-life programs tests things that I > haven't > > thought of and should also mean that the test coverage will be much > higher. > > I can imagine you doing this locally to test the code, then generating > your own examples to put in the test suite to get good coverage. Yes - it would make sense to do some testing locally and not contribute it all, especially if the code base isn't going to change that much. I do think it's still of value to have some real-life examples in the test suite though, so I suppose I'm just trying to get a feel for how much is appropriate. > While you will be writing these and testing the code you wrote, that's > not much different to you choosing the set of external archives to > include then ensuring your code passes with them -- i.e. you will ensure > your code works with the set you choose, which won't be exhaustive either. I disagree here. I think a week (or month etc) testing with different existing code would produce much better coverage and a larger variety of test cases than spending the same amount of time writing a code generator would. However I'll admit I don't know that much about generating code, so maybe I'm missing something here... > Regards, > Tim > Thanks, Sian -- Unless stated otherwise above: IBM United Kingdom Limited - Registered in England and Wales with number 741598. Registered office: PO Box 41, North Harbour, Portsmouth, Hampshire PO6 3AU
