Bequiesce

Because 99.999 doesn't “just happen”

Motivation

Existing tools for testing JavaScript suffer from three problems:

1. They emphasize DOM testing over module testing.
2. They are verbose to the point of being hard to maintain.
3. They mask the true expressiveness of JavaScript.

The Bequiesce test harness begins with a solid basis as a straightforward library regression test tool, while following the guideline that test cases must be easy to read and maintain. Bequiesce does this by using JavaScript's ability to evaluate strings that contain JavaScript code. With this simple approach, the full power of JavaScript remains within the hands of the test developer.

Prerequisites and installation

The Bequiesce utility uses Node.js. Package installation is done via NPM. These are the only two prerequisites.

To install the utility and make it available to your Bash shell, use this command.

[user@host]# npm install -g bequiesce

Usage

The software is invoked from the command line with:

[user@host]# bequiesce [testfile | testdir] 

Pragmas

Bequiesce test packages are composed entirely of JavaScript which are parsed by the test harness. JavaScript statements within a test package are parsed line-by-line and shunted to one of four collections for subsequent evaluation:

1. common sections
2. situation sections
3. propositions
4. proofs

Test authors develop their test cases in a single source file, organized into groups separated by pragmas. The destination for each parsed line is determined by the presence of these three pragmas: @common, @using, and @testing.

Parsed lines that occur immediately after the common pragma are shunted to the common section: these JavaScript statements become part of the evaluation stream for every test case defined later in the test package.

Parsed lines that occur immediately after a using pragma are shunted to the situation section: these JavaScript statements become part of the evaluation stream for test cases defined within the next testing pragma.

Parsed lines that occur immediately after a testing pragma contain proposition-proof test cases. These lines are split into two halves by the presence of the double-semicolon ( ;; ) signal. Everything to the left of the signal is added to the collection of propositions. Everything to the right of the signal is added to the collection of proofs.

Hello World

Here's what the simplest possible test package might look like.

//@using
var z = x + y;

//@testing
x = 1; y = 2;     ;;     z == 3

License

The Bequiesce command line utility is licensed under the MIT License.

Availability