GUI automation tool (windows)

Grant Edwards invalid at invalid.invalid
Wed Aug 11 02:12:49 EDT 2010


On 2010-08-11, Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo at geek-central.gen.new_zealand> wrote:
> In message <i3t449$7cg$1 at reader1.panix.com>, Grant Edwards wrote:
>
>> Automated GUI intended to uncover problems in the underlying program
>> functionality ...
>
> That ???underlying??? functionality has nothing to do with the GUI,
> then. Why not test it directly, rather than go through the GUI?

Because in many programs _there_is_no_other_way_to_test_it_directly_.

Yes, that sucks.  In the real world most programs suck.  You've still
got to test them.

>> Automated GUI testing often isn't even being used to test the program
>> whos GUI is being automated.  It's often used to test _other_ programs
>> with which the GUI-automated-program interacts.
>
> Again, this sounds like it has nothing to do with the GUI per se.

Exactly!  That's what we've been trying to explain. Automating a GUI
isn't done to test how well the GUI works for real users.  It's done
mainly for two purposes:

  1) Regression testing to make sure that the GUI's behavior (good,
     bad, or indifferent) hasn't changed since the previous revision.

  2) To test the functionality underlying the GUI.




More information about the Python-list mailing list