Re: testing framework and package.el

[Stephen J. Turnbull]

Lennart Borgman writes:

 > Wouldn't it be better than to setup the tests so that it is easy to
 > run them with old versions of Emacs - regardless of where the tests
 > are located?

Better than what?  As Christian points out, typically there are shell
scripts/.bat files and Makefiles that need to be fixed up.

What I am suggesting is simply that it makes sense to locate the
common test suite as a sibling to the source checkouts:

/usr/local/src/Emacsen -+- trunk    -+- etc
                        |            +- lisp
                        |            +- src
                        +- emacs-23 -+- etc
                        |            +- lisp
                        |            +- src
                        +- tests    -+- automated
                                     +- crashers
                                     +- ui

instead of having a separate copy

/usr/local/src/Emacsen -+- trunk    -+- etc
                        |            +- lisp
                        |            +- src
                        |            +- tests -+- automated
                                               +- crashers
                                               +- ui
                        +- emacs-23 -+- etc
                                     +- lisp
                                     +- src
                                     +- tests -+- automated
                                               +- crashers
                                               +- ui

This makes it easy to share the tests, as you only need to write the
one set of scripts, Makefiles, etc.  The tests will always be in the
same relative position to your sources (and most important, Makefiles).

 > And of course run it with old versions of Emacs to assure that this is
 > not broken. (Some tests might be, but the test structure should not be
 > broken.)

Yes, that's the theory that everybody agrees to AFAIK.  The practice
is that if there's any inconvenience, it probably won't happen.