Hello listers,

I have really appreciated the organized tests that FPCUnit allows. It's really a very good feature, but for me, it hasn't been to use it.

For some while, I have writen an e-mail saying I could not run some example. The problem was that I don't use Lazarus, but only FPC. I am blind, so for me LCL doesn't make sense.

In spite of that, I had to instal Lazarus because FPCUnit has a LCL dependence.

I would like to use FPCUnit without install Lazarus, but perhaps it was not possible. If I bring FPCUnits modules to my folder, they require other modules and the other modules seem to require more modules. Without Lazarus installed, I could not run it.

The problem has become more severe becouse my Windows has failed. As I have Ubuntu 10.10, I decided to install everything here. FPC was installed, but Lazarus... I have problems of broken packages. I try to install with apt-get, but the repository has an old version only compatible with FPC 2.4.0.

I have downloaded a Lazarus deb package compatible with FPC 2.4.4. I try to install with: "sudo dpkg -i *". It fails, so: "sudo apt-get install -f".

Well, I could not install it. But, I would really prefer not to install Lazarus.

So I want an advice. As FPCUnit has no visual components, I could not understand why LCL units are required. But the important is:

How to run FPCUnit without Lazarus? Is it possible?

Regards,

Luciano

FPCUnit is part of FCL and it doesn't require LCL. Of course if you install via packages under Lazarus components folder, it would depend on Lazarus parts (e.g, LCL), esp. for the runner. Open
fpc/packages/fcl-fpcunit/src/demo for a pure FPC example. Or http://free-pascal-general.1045716.n5.nabble.com/file/n5128730/fpcunit.pdf here for the documentation.

This was already some time discussed here and in my opinion this is the bottleneck of working with freepascal on linux.

Now, I understand. FPCUnit and FPCRegistry do not have LCL dependences. What depends on LCL is the runner called Console Runner. This name make me confused!

I ahve alredy read the documentation, but I could not understand. Perhaps, perhaps my weak english... Well, the fact is that everything is now OK.

When I read the documentation I didn't understand the runner was a separated executable: an application built specially to test my program.

I thought all the code needed to test my program would be in my test unit. I was able to create, to register the tests, but not to run then. I was searching something to run in FPCUnit and FPCRegister. All the code required to run my test would be in the initialization of my test unit. When compiling my application I would do:

program MyApp;
uses
MyUnit,
{$ifdef tst}
MyUnitTest;
{$endif}

And I call: fpc MyApp.pas -dtest. According to this idea, the runner would be my own application called with certain commandline options.

Yes, in my first reading, I do not understand it. Now I can see the adopted model is best. I don't need to mix the code of my application with test code. "{$ifdef ...}" is not required.

In brief, all my problem was that I could understand that I have a runner and I will need to compile it each time I create a new project.

Solved my interpretation issues, now I am coming back to the tests.

Thank you very much for the attention!

Regards,

Luciano

Perhaps, the issue has no a happy end for all, but for me, that don't use Lazarus and I won't have to do it due FPCUnit, everything is fortunatelly OK. It would be unconfortable to install many megabytes to use almost nothing. Now, I am happy with Freepascal. In the future, it's not impossible that I need FileUtils and Clipboard. But When it comes, I will think about. Until there, FPC is complete for me.

In our previous episode, Luciano de Souza said:

Now, I understand. FPCUnit and FPCRegistry do not have LCL dependences. What depends on LCL is the runner called Console Runner. This name make me confused!

In package/fcl-fpcunit/src/demo/consolerunner

there is a runner that is not LCL dependent?

If you go there and do a

fpc -Fu../../exampletests testrunner

it will compile.

The unit consoletestrunner from $lazarusdir/components/fpcunit/console might still be useful to you, because it allows writting the testresults to the console. The unit has NO dependencies to the LCL, so you can simply copy it and compile it along with your tests. Normally you use it like this (I have not tested it and thus I'm just guessing based on the unit's code):

program mytestrunner;

uses
consoletestrunner, // this is the unit copied from Lazarus testunit1, // these are your test units

   testunit2;

begin
   with TTestRunner.Create do
     try
       Run;
     finally
       Free;
     end;
end;

Your tests then register themselves to the testsuite in the initialization section of their unit.

Regards,
Sven

This is why I don't use the packages provided by my distribution (though I just noticed that ArchLinux already provides 2.6.0 :) ), but install them manually either by the *.tar installer provided with each release or through "make install" if I'm working with a dev version. And I also have a nice system to switch between versions easily ;)

Regards,
Sven

I tried ArchLinux, but stopped when this distribution wants to be configured manually. User-friendlyness is also the bottleneck of Linux.

I personally prefer this "manual configuration" to that provided by distros like Ubuntu and such. My nearly 7 year old laptop runs much faster with Arch than it did with Kubuntu (which was my first Linux distro I fully used) as only those applications, services etc are running that I truly need (and I don't use any desktop manager, only a slim window manager ^^)

Regards,
Sven

Hello,

After your previous mails about this, I have discussed this with Vincent Snijders, the author of the console runner class. The console runner class of the LCL does not really have any dependencies on the LCL, only on FCL.

So, it will be moved to the FCL, Vincent has agreed to this. You must simply give me some time to actually do this move.

So please, patience, it will be done, and you will not need Lazarus.

Michael.

Follow-up:

I moved consoletestrunner unit to fcl. Revision 20010.

Michael.

Michael Van Canneyt wrote

Follow-up: I moved consoletestrunner unit to fcl. Revision 20010.

That was quite some time you needed there: 8 minutes. :P

Regards,
Sven

Michael,

In a exemple folder ConsoleRunner inside FPC, I found something like TestRunner.pp. It's something like the ConsoleRunner of Lazarus Components. I added my unit in this application and after compiling, I could run my tests.

I am really entusiastic with FPCUnit. It's really easy to create my tests. But being everything in FPC, it would be better, becouse after installling FPC, the feature is ready to use. I am using the application runner, not the unit ConsoleRunner, but, it's enough to run everything.

Thank you for the attention and congratulations for your work.

Regards,

Luciano

included in LCL. But seeing that you moved the console runner into FCL already, you probably fixed anyways, so my comment is moot. ;-)

Correct. Since the windows console normally is not UTF-8, this change has no ill effects anyway.

Michael.