# $Id: /mirror/trunk/t/TESTS_STATUS.pod 22213 2007-10-18T16:59:33.758090Z paultcochrane  $

=head1 Parrot Testing Status

The primary goal of the Parrot testing effort is to provide complete coverage
of the critical Parrot core subsystems on all targeted platforms. Secondary
goals include testing of non-critical core subsystems, and non-core code.
This document tracks the status of our effort.

Until we have an automated way of quantitatively tracking test coverage,
coverage will be tracked quantitatively, using the scale described below:

=over 4

=item Poor

Very little, or no coverage of a component. This status is completely
unacceptable and should be remedied immediately.

=item Fair

Some coverage of basic component operation. Missing some subtests of basic
operation, failure cases, and invalid input. Component functionality may only
be tested on a subset of platforms that provide that functionality.

=item Good

Full or nearly-full coverage of basic component operation, failure cases,
and invalid input. Tests are run on all platforms which allow component
operation. Hard-to-test code is not yet well-covered. Some missing
functionality is partially tested with failing B<TODO> and B<SKIP> tests.

=item Excellent

Full coverage of basic component operation, failure cases, and invalid input
on all platforms. Hard-to-test code is well-covered. Missing component
functionality, including basic operation, failure cases, and invalid input
is tested with failing B<TODO> and B<SKIP> tests.

=back

=head2 Parrot Core Subsystems

Below is a breakdown of the Parrot core subsystems, and a qualitative measure
of testing status.

=head3 Parser

This module tokenizes the input.

=over 4

=item Status

B<Fair>. There are tests for basic operation, however these tests are spread
throughout the test suite, and are not comprehensive. We can assume basic
operation is well-tested, otherwise the compiler, optimizer, and interpreter
probably wouldn't work very well.
Tests under B<t/compilers/imcc/syn/>, and others.

=back

=head3 Compilers: IMCC, PGE, TGE

=over 4

=item Status

B<Good>.

=back

=head3 Optimizer

This rearranges B<PASM> code to make it run faster.

=over 4

=item Status

B<Good>. Most optimizations are well-tested.
Tests under B<t/compilers/imcc/imcpasm/>.

=back

=head3 Interpreter

This is the core of Parrot. It comprises the various runcores, input/output,
threading, events, exceptions, objects, bytecode loader, etc. Test coverage
of the Parrot Interpreter is critical.

=over 4

=item Status

B<Fair>. A breakdown of Interpreter subsystems below lists individual status.

=over 4

=item PMCs

B<Fair>. Each PMC file has a corresponding test file. Some PMCs are heavily
undertested. Tests under B<t/pmc/>.

=item Operators

B<Good>. Most operators are well-tested. Tests under B<t/op/>.

=item IO

B<Fair>. Tests exist, but do not run on all platforms, and do not test
some important cases. Tests in B<t/pmc/io.t> and B<t/src/io.t>.

=item Dynamic PMCs

B<Poor>. Some dynamic PMCs do not have test files. Coverage in existing
test files is far from complete. Tests under B<t/dynpmc/>.

=item Dynamic ops

B<Poor>. Only a few tests exist, and coverage of important test cases is
weak. Tests under B<t/dynops/>.

=item Packfiles

B<Poor>. All packfile tests have been skipped. Tests under B<t/native_pbc>.

=back

=back

=head3 Runtime Libraries and Includes

=over 4

=item Status

B<Poor>. Some runtime libraries are tested, while others are not. No tests
exist for include files. Tests under B<t/library/>.

=back

=head3 Configure Libraries

=over 4

=item Status

B<Good>. Tests exist, and the coverage is decent and improving.  Tests under
B<t/configure/>.

=back

=head3 Test Libraries

=over 4

=item Status

B<Poor>. Few tests exist, and coverage is poor. However, the test suite
I<seems> to run fine, giving a false sense of security.

=back

=head3 Documentation

=over 4

=item Status

B<Fair>. Opcode documentation is well-tested, and Pod files are checked
for standards-conformance, but many documentation tests are missing.
Tests under B<t/doc>.

=back

=head3 Coding standard

=over 4

=item Status

B<Good>. Tests under F<t/codingstd/*.t>.

=back

=head3 Examples and Benchmarks

=over 4

=item Status

B<Fair>. Tests exist, and cover basic functionality of nearly all examples
and benchmarks. Extensive testing of failures is not a priority. Tests under
B<t/examples/> and B<t/benchmark/>.

=back

=head3 Tools

=over 4

=item Status

B<Poor>. Few tests exist, and coverage is sparse. Tests under B<t/tools/>.

=back

=cut
