Re: [platform-swt-dev] swt.Robot?

[Thomas L Roche <tlroche@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Mike_Wilson@xxxxxxxxxx Tue, 24 Dec 2002 09:37:11 -0500
> I realize this isn't exactly what you are asking for, 

:-/

> but I did see this in the R2.2 plan:

http://www.eclipse.org/eclipse/development/eclipse_project_plan_2_2.html

> " ( new) Support automation of common tasks. To make it easier for
> users to automate common and repetitive tasks, the user should have
> a simple way of recording the sequence of actions as they perform
> them. The recording can be edited, saved persistently, and played
> back under similar circumstances in the same or later session, or
> possibly another workspace. [Platform UI, Platform Core, Platform
> Text, JDT Core, JDT UI, PDE] "

Recording is but a small step towards the functionality that awt.Robot
provides to Swing users. What I want is what they've got now: the
ability to write automated, JUnit-integrated test cases. E.g.

http://abbot.sourceforge.net/doc/Tutorial-2.html
http://jfcunit.sourceforge.net/loginscreenexample.html

Timothy Wall notes the problem with "raw" record/playback:

http://abbot.sourceforge.net/doc/api/overview-summary.html <edited>
> GUI layouts tend to change over time. A raw event recorder/playback
> mechanism will likely break if you're operating in absolute
> coordinates[. Also,] different platforms generally size their
> components differently, so [record/playback] may not work
> cross-platform. [A good test tool shouldn't] care where components
> are positioned, as long as it can look them up dynamically with a
> few tagging identifiers.