[JW Lua] Unit-testing with jwlua scripts?

[Robert Patterson]

It looks to me like this one <https://github.com/bjornbytes/lust> would
work in JW Lua. Basically any framework that is pure lua could be required
into JW Lua. (And compatible with Lua 5.2, but if you've got the lua code
for the framework, as in this example, that's a given.)

As I mentioned on another thread, I've been doing some testing with trying
to get C++ modules to load in JW Lua. I discovered that on Mac it's a
non-starter. JW Lua for Mac is not built with the option that allows it. On
Windows I actually got the C++ module to load and got into my code. The
problem is there is some kind of bug in (probably) JW Lua that causes
Finale to crash when it exits the C++ module. I would bet it's not a
difficult problem to solve. I created a test plugin of my own with Lua
embedded that easily loads C++ modules. I see this as a priority if we can
ever get back to new releases of JW Lua.



On Mon, Sep 13, 2021 at 10:32 PM Nick Mazuk <nick at nickmazuk.com> wrote:

>
> Neat stuff about OOP, Thomas! I haven't personally had a need to use OOP
> with JW Lua (since most things I've needed to do just work best
> functionally, anyways), but good to know that it's possible.
>
> I wonder how you come to that conclusion.  JW Lua does not take anything
> away from Lua that would make those not work.  It just adds some functions,
> tables and user data, but that's not a problem.  As long as they are
> implemented in pure Lua and Lua 5.2 compatible.
>
>
> From my understanding, JW Lua allows you to interact with the PDK
> framework via Lua. The PDK framework, though, is written in C++. Therefore,
> if you write something like…
>
> local measure = finale.FCMeasure()
>
> …it will eventually invoke some C++ code. While it is possible outside of
> JW Lua to have Lua bind to C++ code, JW Lua isn't something you can just
> import/require. It's added when the plugin itself runs the script.
> Therefore, JW Lua code run outside of the plugin won't work. I'm also
> unsure how one might mock/stub PDK values to do true unit/integration
> testing.
>
> Hopefully that clears up my reasoning. I'll admit, I haven't tried using a
> Lua testing framework with JW Lua, so perhaps I'm wrong. I'd actually be
> glad to be wrong about this. If anyone has/does get unit testing working,
> that's exciting!
>
> Nick
>
>
>
> On Mon, Sep 13, 2021 at 9:34 AM, Thomas Weber <
> thomas.weber at notengrafik.com> wrote:
>
>> Am 11.09.21 um 21:26 schrieb Nick Mazuk:
>>
>>
>> *Unit testing*
>>
>> Testing is a feature that's missing in JW Lua. Lua (the language that
>> powers JW Lua) does have several testing frameworks you can use, but
>> because JW Lua adds so many features on top of regular Lua, you likely
>> won't be able to use any of these frameworks.
>>
>>
>> I wonder how you come to that conclusion.  JW Lua does not take anything
>> away from Lua that would make those not work.  It just adds some functions,
>> tables and user data, but that's not a problem.  As long as they are
>> implemented in pure Lua and Lua 5.2 compatible.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> *OOP*
>>
>> Lua does not have objects, classes, inheritance, or most other features
>> you'd expect with object oriented programming. The closest thing is a
>> "table" (like a dictionary in Python or a hash map in Javascript). So the
>> code you write is mostly going to be functional (which realistically this
>> works really well for JW Lua).
>>
>>
>> Well, some say you can even program in an object oriented way in C, but
>> you'd have to roll your own.  In Lua, you have to roll your own as well,
>> but depending on what you want, it's not that involved.  For example to
>> implement instantiation and inheritence using metatables:
>>
>> function inherits(parentMetatable, classMetatable)
>>     return {
>>         __index = setmetatable(classMetatable.__index, parentMetatable)
>>     }
>> end
>>
>> function new(classMetatable)
>>     return setmetatable({}, classMetatable)
>> end
>>
>> local Cat = {__index = {
>>     shout = function(self)
>>         print(self.sound)
>>     end,
>>     sound = "meow",
>> }}
>>
>> local Lion = inherits(Cat, {__index = {
>>     sound = "roar",
>> }})
>>
>>
>> local cat = new(Cat)
>> local lion = new(Lion)
>>
>> cat:shout()
>> lion:shout()
>>
>> Another approach using prototypes:
>>
>> function inherits(parentPrototype, classPrototype)
>>     for key, value in pairs(parentPrototype) do
>>         if classPrototype[key] == nil then
>>             classPrototype[key] = value
>>         end
>>     end
>>     return classPrototype
>> end
>>
>> function new(classPrototype)
>>     return inherits(classPrototype, {})
>> end
>>
>> local Cat = {
>>     shout = function(self)
>>         print(self.sound)
>>     end,
>>     sound = "meow",
>> }
>>
>> local Lion = inherits(Cat, {
>>     sound = "roar",
>> })
>>
>> local cat = new(Cat)
>> local lion = new(Lion)
>>
>> cat:shout()
>> lion:shout()
>>
>> Or – maybe the best choice for non-trivial cases – a constructor based
>> approach, which allows better object initialization and registering of
>> super stuff, where needed:
>>
>> function Cat()
>>     -- "Constructor" that just creates an object and returns it
>>     return {
>>         shout = function(self)
>>             print(self.sound)
>>         end,
>>         sound = "meow",
>>     }
>> end
>>
>> function Lion()
>>     -- "Constructor" that initializes an object
>>     local lion = Cat()
>>     local super_shout = lion.shout
>>     lion.shout = function(self)
>>         -- Just to demonstrate use of a "super" method.
>>         super_shout(self)
>>         print "roar"
>>     end
>>     return lion
>> end
>>
>>
>> local cat = Cat()
>> local lion = Lion()
>>
>> cat:shout()
>> lion:shout()
>>
>> I think the question should be, what do you actually need and what is a
>> good way to achieve it in Lua.  Do I only need composition and
>> encapsulation?  Then that's sort of supported with Lua's tables out of the
>> box.  Do I need inheritance?  That's also possible, as the approaches above
>> show.  I just have to pick one that works for me.  If an equivalent of an
>> "instanceof" operator is needed, then that can be implemented, too, with a
>> bit of creativity.
>>
>> There is also "official" material about OOP (
>> https://www.lua.org/pil/16.html) and on the Lua wiki (
>> http://lua-users.org/wiki/ObjectOrientationTutorial).
>>
>> Thomas Weber
>>
>> --
>>
>> Notengrafik Berlin GmbH
>> HRB 150007
>>
>> UstID: DE 289234097
>> Geschäftsführer:
>> Thomas Weber und Werner J. Wolff
>>
>> fon: +49 30 25359505
>> Friedrichstraße 23a
>> 10969 Berlin
>> notengrafik.com
>>
>>
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