Re: Test Driven Development

From: Donald Roby (droby_at_babsoncourt.com)
Date: 12/09/03 

Date: Tue, 09 Dec 2003 02:53:06 GMT

On Mon, 08 Dec 2003 15:03:56 +0000, Phlip wrote:

> Donald Roby wrote:
>
>> XSLT is very definitely a language, and at least according to some, is
>> Turing complete.
>
> I like to say, "Some text processing languages, like Perl, have the query
> expressions on the inside and the language on the outside. XSLT is a member
> of a category with the expressions on the outside and the language on the
> inside."
>

Inversion sometimes helps. I like Perl, and used it alot when I was doing
quick utilities for my own sysadmin stuff, but find XSLT much clearer when
the data's already XML and the transformation is the most important thing
happening.

>> See http://www.unidex.com/turing/utm.htm. There is also
>> some work being done toward an XSLTUnit - see http://xsltunit.org.
>
> Thanks I needed that! That would have been easy to find, if I had thought to
> look for it.
>

Indeed. I was reasonably sure of the facts, but got the details from
google, whence comes much information and much disinformation lately. I
didn't have time to thoroughly check the accuracy, so I may just be
spreading more disinformation...

>> I think there's also some work going on with unit testing harnesses for
>> PL/SQL, but of course that's not SQL.
>
> It satisfies the "low speed bump" requirement.
>

Yes. It is sort of vendor-specific, but as that's the vendor I (and most
people) use, it probably makes sense. In case you're interested, the one
I know is at http://utplsql.sourceforge.net/. Again, I've seen it, but
have settled for testing from Java so far.

>> > Presumably your language hosting that SQL and XSLT was Java, not SNOBOL
>> > or Haskell, right?
>>
>> Right. I've forgotten all the SNOBOL I once knew. Limited space up
>> there, had to clear it out... Is there a SNOBOLUnit?
>
> I was teasing by picking something weird...
>

I knew that. But as it happens, I did have a class in SNOBOL many years
ago, and couldn't resist the response. And it was on some level a
precursor to XSLT and some of the stuff in Perl, so it fits the thread.

Is there an APLUnit?

> I'l try not to do it again.
>
No, you won't. That much I've figured out. You're incorrigible.

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