Regression Testing and Conformance Testing Interactive Programs
Don Libes · 1992
Testing interactive programs, by its nature, requires interaction -- usually by real people. Such testing is an expensive process and hence rarely done. Some interactive tools can be used non-interactively to a limited extent, and are often tested only this way. Purely interactive programs are rarely tested in any systematic way. This paper describes testing of interactive line and character-oriented programs via Expect. An immediate use of this is to build a test suite for automating standards conformance of all of the interactive programs in POSIX 1003.2a (interactive shells and tools), something which has not yet been accomplished by any means. Introduction Dennis Ritchie said [1] that "A program designed for inputs from people is usually stressed beyond the breaking point by computer-generated inputs." I would add the following: Any program useful to people -- interactively -- is likely to be useful to programs -- non-interactively. A corollary of Ritchie's statement is that corr...