Python advocacy for device testing?

[Darrell Gallion]

I'm developing an embedded systems test tool in Python now. Interfacing to
other test equipment shouldn't be any problem and I'm certain you will be
very happy with Python.

A common theme for these kinds of things is a tool that calls a series of
test scripts. A summary.html file is generated with links to more detailed
failure info. The details are picked out of the individual test scripts.

Parsing is another powerful feature of Python. We have code called the
harvester that pulls many interesting constants and comments from the code
under test. These values are then written into a .py file, which is used to
analyze message traffic. These values are available to test scripts to
compose and trap on messages. The messaging portion can very tricky.

Modifying the code under test via test scripts has also been very
successful.

I can write what I think is the coolest code ever and nobody cares. But
throw a few things into an html file with some tables and they can't get
enough of it. Maybe that's how you sell a Python solution, throw your output
into html. Don't forget to link back into existing documents, they love
that.

--Darrell

----- Original Message -----
From: <redhouse at my-deja.com>


> So I am a python newbie. I have done a week or two of working through
> exercises and read most of "Learning Python." I am trying to sell it as
> a testing infrastructure language in my test automation group. Does
> anybody have any experience in this arena? The goal is to create a
> testing infrastructure for an optical networking product.
>
> The prime competition is TCL, of which I am not a big fan.
>
> Has anybody out there used python in this sort of application? Have you
> used it to interface with network testing equipment to do things like
> load testing and impairment?
>