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

Two things come to mind :

1. Read up on Humble Dialog as an approach to building the UI.
2. Keep your UI code separate from the code that integrates with eclipse.

I aim to end up with just enough code in the class that extends Plugin 
to kickstart my app (as I would in a main() method). Same thing with the 
views and the actions - I treat my XXXView class as a thin wrapper 
around my real view which is pure SWT/JFace.

I should note that this approach is different from the approach 
described in the Beck/Gamma book where they run their JUnit tests using 
the JUnit Plugin Thingie which starts a whole runtime workspace.

My tests are much more localized and run independently of eclipse.

Kevin

Al Chou wrote:
> Cool!  Any tips/tricks/gotchas a beginner on this path should be aware of?
> 
> Al
> 
> 
> --- Kevin Lawrence <[email protected]> wrote:
> 
>>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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