Question

Would really appreciate your help with Tcl/Tk testing framework. I am supposed to test a windows application written with Tcl/Tk, twapi, gdi 0.9.5.1. Do you know a black-box and/or white-box test framework that will help me with GUI testing (generate mouse event, etc etc, and drive the application)? What I expect from the test framework is something like what WindowsLicker allows you to do for Swing.

Answer 1

Tk can generate events with the event generate command, but it will only send these events to itself. You can combine these with the tcltest package to do such testing as you require.

That said, I actually advise splitting up your code so that there is a clear separation between the GUI and the functionality that powers it (the “business logic layer”, to borrow a phrase from server architectures). You can then test your baseline functionality thoroughly without having to fiddle around with testing GUIs, which is enormously easier. Once your BLL is working robustly, testing your GUI then becomes a matter of ensuring that actions in the GUI manipulate the view correctly or translate into appropriate BLL calls (which you know will either work correctly or fail in a way that is clear).