Re: tests in private m-scripts

[John W. Eaton]

On 07/18/2014 12:26 PM, Rik wrote:
> On 07/18/2014 08:32 AM, Andreas Weber wrote:
> > Hi Rik.
> >
> > While digging into the fltk plotting routines I found a note from you
> > (http://hg.savannah.gnu.org/hgweb/octave/rev/12793):
> >
> > ## Test blocks are not allowed (and not needed) for private functions
> > and the following tests in
> > scripts/plot/util/private/__print_parse_opts__.m are disables with #%!test.
> Andreas,
>
> In general the private functions are helping functions for some other main
> function.  Tests for behavior should be in the main function.
>
> Maybe others on the Maintainers list have an opinion on this one.  I would
> lean towards removing them as I can see that several are out of date.o

I'd also favor removing tests for the private functions.

It's not always possible to test private functions in isolation, any 
more than it would be to test a subfunction or a nested function outside 
of the context of the parent function.  For example, correctly testing 
them and ensuring the proper scoping rules requires that they be in the 
private directory (not in a directory that is explicitly in the load 
path) and that they are called from a function in the directory that 
contains the private subdirectory.

jwe