[reportlab-users] Automatic testing PDF output

[Andy Robinson]

2009/5/22 Dinu Gherman <gherman at darwin.in-berlin.de>:

> Perhaps we can solve them with a Google "Sum-

> mer of Code" in typography for ReportLab?



Just knowing that 'something changed' in the full test suite output of
rst2pdf, z3c.rml or even our own test suite is of limited use.  There
are a ton of spurious changes at the pixel level when you update
libraries involved in the rendering of the text as well as the
generation (or switch fonts at someone else's behest!).   We've tried.

What we could really use is a collection of small scripts or
functions, each exercising one carefully-thought-out "feature that
matters", with a brief note underneath saying what the inspector
should see.   For example, the table I posted yesterday and the
statement 'all cells in this table should have the same baseline'.

We can then link these up on our servers to show a gallery of images,
tied together with HTML, allowing easy visual inspection and also
drawing the eye to differences between (say) trunk and last release.
And when there is a change, a human can sort through fairly easily
deciding if they matter.

- Andy