[buckminster-dev] Executing JUnit tests with headless Buckminster

[Achim Demelt <a.demelt@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Thomas,

Over the weekend I have experimented with running JUnit tests from headless 
Buckminster. I wrote a new headless command that launches tests from within 
the workspace in a separate VM. On the positive side, everything went fine 
and I was able to run tests defined in the workspace. On the negative side, 
I basically duplicated code from JDT's JUnit plug-in.

I'd love to reuse jdt.junit code, but unfortunately the JDT team has chosen 
*not* to separate the JUnit launching part from the UI part. Installing a 
whole bunch of UI stuff into headless Buckminster didn't seem like a good 
idea to me. So I went for copying a stripped down version of the JUnit 
execution code because the actual amount of code needed was relatively 
small.

Then I started looking into PDE JUnit testing, and that's where things are 
beginning to get ugly. Again, PDE's JUnit launching code is happily 
coexisting with UI code in the same plug-in. Launching an equinox runtime to 
execute JUnit plug-in tests is not exactly a walk in the park, so I doubt 
that code duplication is a viable approach here.

Ultimately, I would want to be able to read JUnit launch configurations from 
a file and execute them in Buckminster headless. This way, the user can 
specify VM args, equinox configurations, etc. for his tests. But this 
requires Buckminster to understand all parameters of JDT's and PDE's launch 
configurations.

In my eyes, the only reasonable way for a solid JUnit integration in 
headless Buckminster would be to reuse JDT's and PDE's JUnit launching code. 
This would require the JDT and PDE teams to separate their core code from 
their UI code and put it into separate bundles. I guess there's no way this 
is going to happen if *I* file a bugzilla, even if I attach a patch.

Thomas, what's your view on this? Do you see alternatives? Would you be able 
to persuade the JDT/PDE teams to do such a refactoring?

Cheers,
 Achim