Re: Unit-testing service programs

[Barbara Morris <bmorris@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Reeve wrote:
> 
> Is there a better way to test service programs than building a HLL
> wrapper program or REXX procedure?  I use OPTIONS(*NOPASS:*OMIT) in my
> parameters lists, call the service program without any parameters, and
> use Debug to change parameter list values.
> 

Could you expand on this a bit?  It sounds like you're making the call
with no parameters, and then while debugging the called procedure,
you're updating the (unpassed) parameters with some test values.

For parameters passed by value, changing the value of an unpassed
parameter can lead to bizarre and unpredictable results, since you would
be changing storage that something else might be using.

But I don't see how it would work at all for parameters passed by
reference, I don't see how it would let you test your logic to detect
unpassed and/or omitted parameters, so I think I've misunderstood what
you're doing.

What's wrong with creating a test procedure for each procedure in your
service program?  I think it would take less time to write the test
procedure than to do one debugging session, and you would have something
permanent to run whenever you make a change.