PHP-front Quality

Syntax Definition

PHP-Front has an extensive test suite that is run on every build. The grammar is tested by over sixhunderd unit-tests that cover at least every construct in the Yacc-file of the distribution. The parse-unit test suites in the source distribution give an overview of these tests. A test suite that ends with a 5 is tested with the SDF for version 5, a 4 indicates a test with the SDF for version 4.

Pretty Printer

The pretty-printer has a separate testsuite which is also run on every build. The parser and the pretty printer are also tested together using the test-files of the source-distribution of PHP. Each test-file is parsed, pretty-printed, parsed and pretty-printed again. The correctness of this round-trip is tested by performing a diff between the two parsed and the two pretty-printed files. You can see the results of this round-trip in the parsing and pretty-printing tests page. Notice that there are two sad smileys on that page. Both versions contain a file with a switch that closes the cases with the ';' character. This is parsed correctly, but pretty-printed as a ':'. This causes the diff to fail, notice that the pretty-printed versions are completely the same.

Reflection

Both versions of PHP have sections in the testsuites for reflection. PHP5 has some more sections because of the reflection over interfaces. There is a special testsuite for the inclusion of files. This testsuite contains tests that checks the usage of the current- and working-directory related to the inclusion of files.

Useful Strategies

The other useful strategies that are available within PHP-Front are tested with separate testsuites. There are special testssuites for the printing of included files, the constant-propagation and the php-specific simple strategies.

-- EricBouwers - 12 Oct 2006