Re: [TFUI] TDD of (ultimately) GUI app built atop a framework via plug-ins?

I am doing exactly that now.

I have four layers :

My application.
The Humble Dialog-style controller for the UI.
The UI in SWT.
The eclipse plugin.

The SWT layer is thin. The eclipse plugin layer is positively anaemic.

Kevin

Al Chou wrote:
> Thanks for that detailed post, Hugo.
> 
> A follow-on question for all:  have any of you TDD'ed with Eclipse (or any
> other plugin-based platform, e.g., FreeRIDE or maybe even jEdit) where you
> treated the GUI as a thin layer over a more command-line-oriented UI/API and
> your TDD tests were written at that layer (Michael Feathers' "humble dialog
> box" technique?)?
> 
> 
> Al
> 
> 
> --- Hugo Garcia <[email protected]> wrote:
> 
>>On Fri, 4 Mar 2005 14:49:26 -0800 (PST), Al Chou <hotfusionman-/[email protected]>
>>wrote:
>>
>>>I want to build an application that should have a GUI.  I want to build it
>>
>>atop
>>
>>>a framework like Eclipse or FreeRIDE that will allow me to essentially
>>
>>provide
>>
>>>the custom functionality I need by creating plug-ins for the framework. 
>>
>>The
>>
>>>app isn't an IDE or text editor, so I think I'm going to be stripping down
>>
>>the
>>
>>>framework to its core that supports plug-ins (e.g., start with Eclipse
>>
>>Platform
>>
>>>rather than Eclipse SDK) and building up from there.
>>>
>>
>>Seems like what you want is to develop a Rich Client Platform
>>application. If you use the latest milestone build (3.1M5) then you
>>get the basic wizards that create the starting points for you. The
>>lastest tutorials at EclipseCon 2005 has the latest startup pointers
>>that are relevant to 3.1. Also the RCP homepage tutorials are a great
>>starting place.
>>
>>You can get all those links at my blog at
>>
>>http://fitsterandeclipse.blogspot.com/
>>
>>
>>>I want to do TDD for this project, and I think the app should be usable via
>>
>>the
>>
>>>command line or some similar scripting interface in addition to its GUI.
>>
>>Here it depends what kind of TDD you want to do. If you are planning
>>on the black box type (aka junit) then you are in luck since the PDE
>>comes with a juinit plugin. To use it, read chapter 12 of Contributing
>>to Eclipse and onwards. Also Chapter 2 of Building Commercial-Quality
>>Plugins.
>>
>>On the other hand if you want to do functional testing then you are
>>kind of in and out of luck.  There is basically only one tool for now,
>>Abbot at http://abbot.sourceforge.net/ BUT there are certain caveats
>>in using it: 1) You have to limit your development testing to windows
>>version since it doesn't quite work with GTK yet and 2) in order to
>>use it you have to use a hacked version of the SWT distribution. But
>>apart from that it is usable. Browse the email list for abbot since
>>there is a very good recent email explaining the whole mess.
>>
>>If this is your first time approaching Eclipse GUI development then I
>>strongly suggest you build it as a standalone SWT/JFace application.
>>This will familiarize you with the basic widget architecture which is
>>very different from Swing (read true MVC). Once you have your spkie
>>going then it is a matter of refactoring the app into a plugin but you
>>gain the opportunity that maybe this is all you need and also you can
>>concentrate on just the learning factor of the plugin development
>>cycle per.
>>
>>
>>>Anyone out there have any experience or advice on how to approach such a
>>>project?
>>
>>Good Luck.
>>
>>
>>>Al
>>>
>>>=====
>>>Albert Davidson Chou
>>>
>>>    Get answers to Mac questions at http://www.Mac-Mgrs.org/ .
> 
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