Python as a Testing Language - TTCN-3 Comparison

[Saravanan Shanmugham (sarvi)]

Well, looks like someone did such a comparison just recently. Just FYI
PDF at the link below
 
http://www.site.uottawa.ca/~bernard/A%20comparison%20between%20ttcn-3%20
and%20python%20v%2011.pdf
 
Comparing TTCN-3 with raw python as they have done is not fair. But even
then some of the comparisons made does not seem to make good use of
python constructs to be fair. 
 
It seems to me with a little bit of a well written python test framework
behind the scenes the comparison wouldn't be as bad as this document
shows. 
 
For example they compare a TTCN-3 structure and template to Python
objects. But I am guessing for these uses a Dictionary would have been a
better way of representing a TTCN-3 template or structure in python.
 
Anyway,  to me what this does point out is that the current python test
frameworks(python the language) are just good enough, compared to
TTCN-3. We just need a better python test framework and may be in that
process we may be able to identify some python language constructs, if
any, that might make it easier to build the test framework or describe
test cases.  
 
Sarvi


________________________________

	From: Saravanan Shanmugham (sarvi) 
	Sent: Wednesday, June 11, 2008 1:28 PM
	To: 'python-list at python.org'
	Subject: Python as a Testing Language - TTCN-3 Comparison
	
	
	Hi,
	     Is there any work being done to make Python better suited
for writing test cases for any problem space.
	 
	     I am a huge python fan and one of the things that got me
there was the simplicy and elegance its constructs that allow me to do
complex programming operations in very few lines without compromising on
readability.
	 
	     When I was looking for an efficient language for describing
test cases for any problem domain, I naturally thought Python would be
my best bet. (Even though Tcl is used extensively, and I have used it).
	 
	    But I found something called TTCN-3 which is a language
designed specifcally for describing test cases. 
	I found the following comparison of TTCN-3 with Junit and Tcl
	
http://www.site.uottawa.ca/~bernard/Tutorial_JUnit_tcltk_ttcn-3_animated
.pdf
	 
	It clearly shows the elegance of the language when it comes to
describing test cases.
	 
	Questions: 
	   1. Does anyone one know of a similar comparison of TTCN-3
with Python? Or does some one have an idea how it would compare if we
actually did a comparison. 
	   2. Two powerfull things that seems to make TTCN-3 suite for
testing is the Template matching mechanism and the concept Alternate
matching or Trees. How best do we do this in Python? Is there room for
improvement language constructs that could make this simpler.
	 
	Thx,
	Sarvi
	 
	 

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