[tap-l] multi-file TAP

[Eric Wilhelm]

# from Andy Armstrong
# on Saturday 07 April 2007 08:58 am:

>plan 4
>begin "Spigot extraction"
>   plan 3
>   ok 1 Spigot::Extractor loaded
>   ok 2 Spigot visble
>   not ok 3 Spigot free
>end
>begin "Documentation"
>   plan 1
>   ok 1 Documentation makes sense
>end
>ok 3 All tests completed

Doesn't that last line invalidate the 'plan 4' bit?

If we're indenting, couldn't we do without the 'end'?

Even without indenting, I'm a bit wary of a begin/end scheme simply 
because it allows results and files the same status.  It's like a data 
structure of:

  - value
  - [list of values]
  - value
  - [list of values [list of values] value]
  - value

It seems it would make more sense as:

  - [list of values]
  - [[lists of lists], [of values]]

Or at least, not allowing trailing and interspersed bits:

  - value
  - value
  -
   - list
   - of
   - values
  -
   - value
   - value
   -
    - list
    - of
    - values

Maybe I'm just suffering the xml jitters.  Even the above scares me.  
It's like we're going to build a data structure using only the tag 
<node>.

What about a directory/file concept?  Directories have no values, they 
are just containers.

  container top
    begin foo
      ok 1
    container category1
      begin bar
        ok 1
      container category1.1
        begin baz
          ok 1
        begin bat
          ok 1
    container category2
      begin foo
        ok 1

Or so, representing this tree
  top/
  |-- category1
  |   |-- bar
  |   `-- category1.1
  |       |-- bat
  |       `-- baz
  |-- category2
  |   `-- foo
  `-- foo

There's nothing in that which says a test file can't pretend to be a 
directory, only that it can't simultaneously be a file and a directory.  
The flat directory would then be:

begin foo
  ok 1
begin bar
  ok 1

Where the root container is implied, just as begin is implied for a 
single file.

--Eric
-- 
If the collapse of the Berlin Wall had taught us anything, it was that
socialism alone was not a sustainable economic model.
--Robert Young
---------------------------------------------------
    http://scratchcomputing.com
---------------------------------------------------