Re: Questions about testing

[David Bateman]

Robert T. Short wrote:
> Bob has some questions.  This is regarding the tests in the tests 
> directory.  Mostly I think it is pretty straightforward, but just to 
> make sure I understand.
>
> Most but not all of the files in the test directory have a series of 
> entries of the form
>
> %% test/octave.test/transpose/transpose-1.m
> %!test
> %! scalar = 2;
> %! assert(scalar',2);
>
> Question 1.
>
> What does the first line
>
> %% test/octave.test/transpose/transpose-1.m
The octave test system used to be under DejaGnu, but that instantiated a 
new instance of Octave for every test. The advantage of that is that 
even tests that core-dumped octave would stop the other tests running. 
But the penalty in time is too high when we have a few thousand tests. 
Most of the scripts in this directory were converted to the new test 
scheme a few years ago with a lot of nasty scripts and for historical 
reasons I kept the old DejaGnu filename as a comment.. A few years down 
the track with DejaGnu buried these lines no longer make sense and 
should probably go.

> do?  I don't find a file anywhere called transpose-1.m
>
> Question 2.
>
> Does the %! have some special significance, or does it just indicate 
> that the embedded code is to be executed as part of the test?
Yes the "%!" anywhere is a file of any sort as the first two characters 
on a line will cause the Octave test harness to treat the following 
lines as a test function.. A lot of the m-files and C++ files are 
sprinkled with such lines.

> Question 3.
>
> What does the
>
> %!test
>
> line do?
See the manual

http://www.gnu.org/software/octave/doc/interpreter/Test-and-Demo-Functions.html

D.

> Bob
> --
> Robert T. Short
> PhaseLocked Systems


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