> On Sep 28, 2004, at 5:57 PM, Alan Grimes wrote:
> > Are there any coverage test suites for the VM?

> There are some test suites for the plugins. It would be nice if  
> "someone" wanted to actually
> create test suites for *all* the primitives, this would help identify  
> platform specific issues.

I suppose it would be foolish of me to continue my blind hacking. It 
would also be of great benefit in general for users to be able to 
verify that their VM build is functioning properly or to be able to 
provide the h4x0r$ with the most useful possible information.

To that end, a Squeak VM master specification should be made (does it 
exist already?) 

If no such document already exists, the first step would be to create a 
general format guideline which specifies how each opcode is to be 
described. 

Next, all opcodes and plug-in calls should be described listing their 
general purpose, the parameters they accept, a mathematically precice 
description of their nominal function, and what they are supposed to do 
if things go horribly, terribly wrong. =P It would also be nice to have 
a comments section to give additional information about the thinking 
behind the function and how it might change in the future. 

Finally, the coverage suite can probably be a class with a "TestFuncK" 
method for each call to be tested and a table of constants representing 
pre-checked values.

I'll get started on this next time I fire up an image....