[comp.unix.questions] Looking for regression testing package

mleech@bwdlh131.bnr.ca (Marcus Leech) (02/14/91)

We're looking for a package to do regression testing of packages we get
  from third party prior to releasing them to our user population.  We'd
  like something that can (using a script) simulate a human typing on the
  keyboard.  I'm aware of "expect/tcl"--are they appropriate?  Is there
  anything better?


-- 
Marcus Leech, 4Y11             Bell-Northern Research  |opinions expressed
mleech@bnr.ca                  P.O. Box 3511, Stn. C   |are my own, and not
VE3MDL@VE3JF.ON.CAN.NA         Ottawa, ON, CAN K1Y 4H7 |necessarily BNRs

libes@cme.nist.gov (Don Libes) (02/15/91)

In article <1991Feb14.141001.1899@bwdls61.bnr.ca> mleech@bwdlh131.bnr.ca (Marcus Leech) writes:
>We're looking for a package to do regression testing of packages we
>get from third party prior to releasing them to our user population.
>We'd like something that can (using a script) simulate a human typing
>on the keyboard.  I'm aware of "expect/tcl"--are they appropriate?

"Regression Testing and Conformance Testing Interactive Programs" is
the name of a paper recently submitted to a journal.  Until it is
accepted, it can't be given out but here is the abstract:

  ABSTRACT: Testing interactive programs, by its nature, requires
  interaction - usually by real people.  Such testing is an expensive
  process and hence rarely done.  Some interactive tools can be used
  non-interactively to a limited extent, and are often tested only this
  way.  Purely interactive programs are rarely tested in any systematic
  way.

  This paper describes expect, a tool for general testing of interactive
  line- and character-oriented programs.  expect can also be used to
  automate standards conformance testing of the many interactive
  programs in, say, POSIX 1003.2.  This, and other software engineering
  applications of expect are described in this paper.