Re: [RFC PATCH v3 1/1] unit tests: Add a project plan document

From: Linus Arver <linusa@google.com>
Date: Jun 29, 2023, 19:42 UTC
Message-ID: <owlybkgy837j.fsf@fine.c.googlers.com>
In-Reply-To: <8afdb215d7e10ca16a2ce8226b4127b3d8a2d971.1686352386.git.steadmon@google.com>

Hello,

Josh Steadmon <steadmon@google.com> writes:

> In our current testing environment, we spend a significant amount of
> effort crafting end-to-end tests for error conditions that could easily
> be captured by unit tests (or we simply forgo some hard-to-setup and
> rare error conditions).Describe what we hope to accomplish by

I see a minor typo (no space before the word "Describe").

Show 20 quoted lines

> +=== Comparison
> +
> +[format="csv",options="header",width="75%"]
> +|=====
> +Framework,"TAP support","Diagnostic output","Parallel execution","Vendorable / ubiquitous","Maintainable / extensible","Major platform support","Lazy test planning","Runtime- skippable tests","Scheduling / re-running",Mocks,"Signal & exception handling","Coverage reports"
> +https://lore.kernel.org/git/c902a166-98ce-afba-93f2-ea6027557176@gmail.com/[Custom Git impl.],[lime-background]#True#,[lime-background]#True#,?,[lime-background]#True#,[lime-background]#True#,[lime-background]#True#,[lime-background]#True#,?,?,[red-background]#False#,?,?
> +https://cmocka.org/[cmocka],[lime-background]#True#,[lime-background]#True#,?,[red-background]#False#,[yellow-background]#Partial#,[yellow-background]#Partial#,[yellow-background]#Partial#,?,?,[lime-background]#True#,?,?
> +https://libcheck.github.io/check/[Check],[lime-background]#True#,[lime-background]#True#,?,[red-background]#False#,[yellow-background]#Partial#,[lime-background]#True#,[yellow-background]#Partial#,?,?,[red-background]#False#,?,?
> +https://github.com/rra/c-tap-harness/[C TAP],[lime-background]#True#,[red-background]#False#,?,[lime-background]#True#,[yellow-background]#Partial#,[yellow-background]#Partial#,[yellow-background]#Partial#,?,?,[red-background]#False#,?,?
> +https://github.com/silentbicycle/greatest[Greatest],[yellow-background]#Partial#,?,?,[lime-background]#True#,[yellow-background]#Partial#,?,[yellow-background]#Partial#,?,?,[red-background]#False#,?,?
> +https://github.com/Snaipe/Criterion[Criterion],[lime-background]#True#,?,?,[red-background]#False#,?,[lime-background]#True#,?,?,?,[red-background]#False#,?,?
> +https://github.com/zorgnax/libtap[libtap],[lime-background]#True#,?,?,?,?,?,?,?,?,?,?,?
> +https://nemequ.github.io/munit/[µnit],?,?,?,?,?,?,?,?,?,?,?,?
> +https://github.com/google/cmockery[cmockery],?,?,?,?,?,?,?,?,?,[lime-background]#True#,?,?
> +https://github.com/lpabon/cmockery2[cmockery2],?,?,?,?,?,?,?,?,?,[lime-background]#True#,?,?
> +https://github.com/ThrowTheSwitch/Unity[Unity],?,?,?,?,?,?,?,?,?,?,?,?
> +https://github.com/siu/minunit[minunit],?,?,?,?,?,?,?,?,?,?,?,?
> +https://cunit.sourceforge.net/[CUnit],?,?,?,?,?,?,?,?,?,?,?,?
> +https://www.kindahl.net/mytap/doc/index.html[MyTAP],[lime-background]#True#,?,?,?,?,?,?,?,?,?,?,?
> +|=====

This table is a little hard to read. Do you have your patch on GitHub or somewhere else where this table is rendered with HTML?

It would help to explain each of the answers that are filled in with the word "Partial", to better understand why it is the case. I suspect this might get a little verbose, in which case I suggest just giving each framework its own heading.

The column names here are slightly different from the headings used under "Desired features"; I suggest making them the same.

Also, how about grouping some of these together? For example "Diagnostic output" and "Coverage reports" feel like they could be grouped under "Output formats". Here's one way to group these:

    1. Output formats

    TAP support
    Diagnostic output
    Coverage reports

    2. Cost of adoption

    Vendorable / ubiquitous
    Maintainable / extensible
    Major platform support

    3. Performance flexibility

    Parallel execution
    Lazy test planning
    Runtime-skippable tests
    Scheduling / re-running

    4. Developer experience

    Mocks
    Signal & exception handling

I can think of some other metrics to add to the comparison, namely:

    1. Age (how old is the framework)
    2. Size in KLOC (thousands of lines of code)
    3. Adoption rate (which notable C projects already use this framework?)
    4. Project health (how active are its developers?)

I think for 3 and 4, we could probably mine some data out of GitHub itself.

Lastly it would be helpful if we can mark some of these categories as must-haves. For example would lack of "Major platform support" alone disqualify a test framework? This would help fill in the empty bits in the comparison table because we could skip looking too deeply into a framework if it fails to meet a must-have requirement.

Thanks, Linus