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

yeah but you are developing in IntelliJ not Eclipse.

-H


On Mon, 07 Mar 2005 15:02:22 -0800, Kevin Lawrence
<[email protected]> wrote:
> 
> 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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