Non-functional perl code testing - automated code review

By Alexey Shrub on February 17, 2011 6:48 AM

I saw a very ugly Perl code, and I think that is possible because no code review exist in project. But always we have a very little time for human code review. I search CPAN modules for basic level code review by machine. I hope that these modules help Perl people to avoid writing ugly code and help team leaders minimize time to code review. I try to collect founded modules in github repository and now want to describe what we know if all these test passed:

Module have valid syntax and have strict and warnings pragmas - thanks to Test::Strict
Module have only unix line endings and not have whitespaces in the end of line - thanks to Test::EOL
Module have no FIXME notes - thanks to Test::Fixme
Module have no soft breakpoints for perl debugger - thanks to Test::NoBreakpoints
Module have no tabs - thanks to Test::NoTabs
Module distribution looks good to upload to cpan - thanks to Test::Kwalitee
Code units in module have required cyclomatic complexity and required lines of code - thanks to Perl::Metrics::Simple. I try to use Test::Perl::Metrics::Simple, but got problem with installing and write my own test.
Module code is conform to Perl Best Practice recommendation from Perl::Critic - thanks to Test::Perl::Critic
Module has POD and it is valid - thanks to Test::Pod
POD cover all methods - thanks to Test::Pod::Coverage
POD is written on valid human language - thanks Test::Spelling
The tests written for module cover needed percent of code - thanks to Test::Strict and Devel::Cover
Module has no memory leaks - thanks to Test::Weaken - this test is non functional, but because it is not universal (if we add method we must add test) I move it to 't' directory with functional tests

That I not found:

Test for depth of conditional nesting code metric
Test for code style - I found Test::PerlTidy, but it have some bugs, I wrote to author, he said than plan fix it

I try to collect maximum non-functional test collection - you can use that you need only. I hope that it post will be useful for somebody and I will be glad any comments.

Sorry, if my English is not good.

9 comments

Tagged as:

code review, unit testing

9 Comments

Erez Schatz | February 17, 2011 9:37 AM | Reply

This is excellent, are you planning on creating a module that will aggregate all this testing goodness into a cohesive code review script?

Ovid replied to comment from Erez Schatz | February 17, 2011 11:57 AM | Reply

@Erez: you should be able to use Test::Kit to handle this (untested).

package Test::Code::Review;

use Test::Kit qw(

  Test::Strict

  Test::EOL

  Test::Fixme

  Test::NoBreakpoints

); # add modules as needed

# and in your code:

use Test::Code::Review tests => $num_tests;

# ...

With Test::Kit, you can easily create a custom testing module to suit your individual needs.

Mithaldu | February 17, 2011 3:32 PM | Reply

Test for depth of conditional nesting code metric

You can use and/or cannibalize parts of Code::Statistics for that. Specifically: Code::Statistics::Metric::ccomp

It also has some other metrics and lets you for example, measure nesting depth itself, so it warns when you have 14 blocks nested inside each other.

rjbs.manxome.org | February 17, 2011 4:21 PM | Reply

You might be interested in http://search.cpan.org/dist/Dist-Zilla-PluginBundle-TestingMania which has a similar catalog, and adds them all to your distribution for you.

Mike Doherty | February 17, 2011 4:56 PM | Reply

My pluginbundle only collects testing regimes for which there is already a Dist::Zilla testing plugin. It is probably worth writing new plugins for some of what's mentioned here and including them. Patches welcome :D

Alexey Shrub replied to comment from Mithaldu | February 18, 2011 6:28 AM | Reply

@Mithaldu Thanks, I saw this module, but now don't remember why I don't use it.

Alexey Shrub | February 18, 2011 6:30 AM | Reply

@ rjbs: Thanks, I found a couple interesting test modules in Dist::Zilla::PluginBundle::TestingMania

Alexey Shrub replied to comment from Mithaldu | March 24, 2011 8:55 AM | Reply

I experiment with Code::Statistics - if I rigth undestand ccomp it is cyclomatic complexity, but cyclomatic complexity is not depend of nesting, for this metric those codes is equal:
1. if(1){if(1){if(1){if(1){if(1){if(1){}}}}}};
2. if(1){};if(1){};if(1){};if(1){};if(1){};if(1){};

But now I need test for nesting level.

I don't understand that is sdepth metric - in my experiment sdepth already 0 or 1

Alexey Shrub replied to comment from Mithaldu | March 24, 2011 8:56 AM | Reply

But now I need test for nesting level.

I don't understand that is sdepth metric - in my experiment sdepth already 0 or 1

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I blog about Perl.

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Alexey Shrub