The Design of a Test Case Definition Language
David Byers, Magnus Engström, Mariam Kamkar · 1997
Unit testing of software requires the construction of large amounts of supporting software. Test drivers and stubs are needed to isolate the unit under test from other units, and test cases specifications need to be translated into compilable code. Constructing test software is as time-consuming and as fault-prone as any other software, and sometimes more so. To support testers there are tools that can automatically generate test code from test case specifications that are similar to the test case specification. These tools include a test case definition language, in which the test cases are stated, and a test script generator, that generates compilable code from the test case de nitions. Even so, testers often have to resort to writing source code for test cases requiring features unavailable in the test case definition language. To learn more about how a better test case definition language could be constructed, we have designed and implemented a test script generator and a test case definition language. This paper gives an overview of some of our experiences and some of our ideas for future work.