smlunit

Unit testing for the SML/NJ implementation of standard ML

Dependencies

• Python 2.7+
• SML/NJ
• Not Windows (will work on any SOCS machine with Python 2.7 installed - ubuntu, the lab machines, open area, etc; excludes linux, mimi)

Usage notes

Running the script

Set the smlunit file to executable (chmod +x smlunit). You can then run it from the command line as follows:

./smlunit hw-tests/hw1.sml

replacing hw-tests/hw1.sml with the desired test.

You can also use the lib/smlunit.sml file directory by typing in

use "lib/smlunit.sml";

in an interactive session, it's just messier and doesn't provide you with any nice statistics.

Don't move any of the files around unless you know what you're doing. Deleting tests.sml is okay because it's pretty useless.

Writing the tests

See hw-tests/hw1.sml for an example test file. The functions you can use are:

assertEqual (actual) (expected) "Description of the test";
assertRealEqual (actual) (expected) "Description of the test";
assertTrue (boolean) "Description of the test";
assertFalse (boolean) "Description of the test";
(* The below are for testing one function with many test cases *)
assertRegulars (function) [
	((an input), (expected output), "Description"),
	((another input), (expected output), "Description")
]						"Description of the test";
assertReals (function) [
	((an input), (expected output), "Description"),
	((another input), (expected output), "Description")
]						"Description of the test";

Remember to import the file defining the functions you want to test at the top, using use. The path should be relative to the root of the git repository (i.e. the directory containing the smlunit file). For hw-tests/hw1.sml, place the associated hw1.sml file in the hw directory.

Only use assertRealEqual to compare reals. The precision is about 11 decimal points - i.e., it should compare all the decimal points actually visible when you print out the variable. (I'm not completely sure if this works properly. But it seems to.)

Avoid passing parameters of inappropriate types. This is fairly straightforward.

Development notes

• Because polymorphic printing is apparently impossible, the expected and actual values are printed out as a list. This is silly but it works.
• The lines use "lib/smlunit.sml"; use "{filename}.sml"; are echoed into the interpreter and the output is then checked and processed by Python. This is also silly but it, too, works.

To do

• If there are no tests ...
• Exception handling
• Handle ALL the SML errors
• Comparing lists of reals? (Currently not possible)
• Consider actually compiling things instead of this ridiculous echo/piping stuff
• Show warnings (at the end or something)
• Organising tests into sections or test cases. Like in QUnit?
• Make it work for python 2.6 (check_output in subprocess, check for version or exceptions or whatever)
• Optional string descriptions - possible?
• Make sure assertRealEqual does what it's supposed to do, and consider changing the name
• assertRegulars etc CANNOT take more than one parameter (if you can't use tuples, can't use them)
• breaks when the last test fails (the expected, actual values aren't correct)