BIST tests for C++ functions (was: 2015 Octave Code Sprint)

[Mike Miller]

On Fri, Dec 04, 2015 at 17:01:11 -0800, Rik wrote:
>  2. Add BIST tests for octave functions written in C++
>     
> (http://wiki.octave.org/wiki/index.php?title=Add_BIST_tests_for_octave_functions_written_in_C%2B%2B)

I worked on this task for a little at the tail end of the sprint today.
Rik, I assume you used a script to populate the list of instances on the
wiki. There seem to be both some false positives and missed
opportunities in the resulting list.

• Not finding functions declared like this:

  DEFUNX ("stat", …

• Including functions that are block-commented out, such as

  libinterp/corefcn/symtab.cc:1841:DEFUN (set_variable, …

• Including functions that are tested along with other functions.

We talked about the last item on #octave, just documenting it here for
others. To mark functions that are tested elsewhere, I added test-like
comment blocks like these:

http://hg.savannah.gnu.org/hgweb/octave/file/ec8c8977b0be/libinterp/corefcn/besselj.cc#l386
http://hg.savannah.gnu.org/hgweb/octave/file/ec8c8977b0be/libinterp/corefcn/bitfcns.cc#l374

Another common case I ran across is aliases, either with DEFALIAS or
with a trivial DEFUN that calls another one. Taking as example "arg" and
"angle", how much of the BIST for "arg" should be copy-pasted to test
"angle"?

-- 
mike