Moderator: Grig Gheorghiu (grig at gheorghiu dot net)

I maintain a "Python Testing Tools Taxonomy" (PTTT) Wiki page at

http://pycheesecake.org/wiki/PythonTestingToolsTaxonomy

Here are some of the tools listed on the PTTT page:

• unit testing tools (unittest/doctest/py.test/nose/Testoob/testosterone)
• mock/stub testing tools (python-mock/pmock/stubble)
• fuzz testing tools (Peach/pester/antiparser/Taof)
• Web testing tools (twill/webunit/zope.testbrowser/Pamie/paste.test.fixture)
• acceptance testing tools (Pyfit/texttest/Fitloader)
• GUI testing tools (pywinauto/WATSUP/winGuiAuto/guitest)
• source code checking tools (pylint/pychecker/pyflakes)
• code coverage tools (coverage/figleaf/Pester)
• other miscellaneous testing tools (pysizer/pymetrics/svnmock/testtools)

The Testing Tools Panel at PyCon07 will give authors of some of these tools a chance to discuss and take questions on topics such as:

• what need prompted the creation of the testing tool
• what type of testing does the tool belong to (unit, functional, acceptance, system, performance)
• what specific features does the tool offer that other tools lack
• what are the most common testing scenarios you have seen in your user base
• how do you approach testing in your own projects
• what types of testing (unit, functional, GUI) have brought you the most payoff
• how much automated testing vs. manual testing do you do in your projects; which type of testing discovered the ugliest bugs
• how extensible is the tool (plugins etc.)
• are there any platform- or OS-specific gotchas related to the tool
• how easy to learn is the tool
• how well tested is the tool
• how well documented is the tool

Questions contributed by panelists:

• When is the wrong time to test? What shouldn't be tested?
• Besides "there are no tests", what is a sign that testing is being misused or that the tests are improperly designed?
• Confessional: is there a recent example when you didn't live up to your own testing standards? Reflect!
• Test recorders: good, bad, ugly? Reflect!

The following testing tool authors accepted to be on the panel:

• Titus Brown (Web app testing -- twill; coverage analysis -- figleaf)
• Benji York (Web app. testing -- zope.testbrowser)
• Brian Dorsey (unit testing -- py.test)
• Chad Whitaker (unit testing -- testosterone, potentially as nose plugin)
• Neal Norwitz (static code analysis -- PyChecker)
• Ian Bicking (Acceptance testing -- FitLoader, test fixtures -- paste.test.fixture, mock testing -- minimock)
• Jeff Younker (mock testing -- PyMock)
• Kumar McMillan (test fixtures -- with the fixture module)
• Martin Taylor (automated testing framework in use at Texas Instruments)

Tentative:

• Holger Krekel (unit testing -- py.test)