Fwd: [Haskell-cafe] Data.Tree.Zipper in the standard libraries

[Don Stewart]

igloo:
> On Sat, May 31, 2008 at 10:44:40AM +0200, Krasimir Angelov wrote:
> > 
> > I was silent for some time but in this time I created QuickCheck tests
> > for Data.Tree.Zipper which achieve 100% coverage with HPC. I also
> > created a ticket for it: Ticket #2324
> > 
> > http://hackage.haskell.org/trac/ghc/ticket/2324
> > 
> > The attached file is the current implementation and it contains the
> > version updated from Iavor Diatchki. It has the advantage that it also
> > works with forests, not just with trees.
> > 
> > Initially I thought that complete testsuite for such a simple module
> > might be overkill but actually I found a bug :-) in the splitChildren
> > function which is now fixed.
> 
> So just to check, this proposal is to add Data.Tree.Zipper to containers
> and the QC tests to the testsuite, right?
> 
> As I've explained before[1], I don't think that QuickCheck tests are a
> good way to test libraries: They tend to test the same inputs (e.g. [])
> or equivalent inputs (e.g. "insert 2 [3]" and "insert 3 [4]") many
> times, meaning it takes much longer to get the same level of testing as
> a few well-chosen unit tests. When you multiply this by all the
> libraries the testsuite is meant to test, this is a significant amount
> of time.
> 
> I also don't think that adding the tests but not running them
> automatically is a good idea, as they will most likely just bitrot.
> 
> Adding a unit test for the bug you found is certainly a good idea,
> though!
> 
> 
> [1] http://www.haskell.org/pipermail/libraries/2008-April/009594.html
> 
> 

You're on your own on this one, Ian. QuickCheck is a cheap, simple way
to get good coverage, that's why Haskell library writers use it.

Please include tests, Krasimir!

-- Don