What's the best way to unit test custom phrases? about elliptical HOT 3 CLOSED

This is an issue that I struggle with myself. Lacona Output is designed primarily to describe an interface, not necessarily raw data... so testing it is not always natural.

For https://github.com/lacona/lacona-phrase-datetime, assume that for each "complete" input, there is one "correct" output. That is, if the user has entered a full phrase, there should be no ambiguity there. Because I make that assumption, I just

1. Filter out all of the outputs that have placeholder words in them, because these are not complete.
2. Verify that there is only one output
3. Compare result value
4. Compare the raw text of the output to make sure that it is the same as the input, using

function text (input) {
  return _.map(input.words, 'text').join('')
}

Example here

Of course, this has some issues. It doesn't work to test what lacona outputs as the user is typing. And it doesn't work for cases like yours, where a valid input "10 mi" could be the initial substring of another valid input "10 mile".

In your case, I would actually modify your phrase and add a limit to your <choice>, maybe something like this.

<sequence>
  <Number />
  <literal text=' ' />
  <choice>
    <choice limit={1}>
      <literal text='m' />
      <literal text='meters' />
    </choice>
    <choice limit={1}>
      <literal text='mi' />
      <literal text='miles' />
    </choice>
  </choice>
</sequence>

With this, Lacona will never "miles" for the input of "mi", because one of the choices matched already. So

'10 m'   suggests '10 m' and '10 mi'
'10 me'  suggests '10 meters'
'10 mi'  suggests '10 mi'
'10 mil' suggests '10 miles'

That's possibly a better interface for the user, because it won't be making multiple suggestions that are functionally identical. It has the side effect of making your testing easier!

from elliptical.

Thanks. That makes a lot of sense. I'll try it out this weekend and let you know how it goes.

from elliptical.

Closing this for now, please let me know how your trial goes.

from elliptical.