Re: A random topic for discussion -- free software tackles GUI automation?

[Federico Mena Quintero <federico nuclecu unam mx>]

>  The challenge is to make a GUI which can work solely from the
>  keyboard.  Once you can do that, an automated test program is just a
>  matter of generating sequences of keystrokes.

This is obviously not sufficient.  Applications need different input
devices, and the keyboard is not a panacea.  Consider the GIMP.  It
*needs* a mouse.  Even better, it needs a pressure-sensitive tablet.
You need to support that as well.  A 3D program may need a Spaceball,
and if you want to do automated testing of such code, you'll need
support for it.  A program to test a program that lets you enter 3D
data will need support for a Polhemus digitizer or a Cyberware scanner
or whatever.

Different applications need different input devices, possibly very
weird ones, so an automated testing tool will have a hard job.

  Federico