From: Tim Harig on
On 2010-08-11, Steven D'Aprano <steve(a)REMOVE-THIS-cybersource.com.au> wrote:
> Mouse and keyboard event recording software used to be one of the killer
> apps for power users back in the days of classic Apple Mac and early
> versions of Windows. I'm not entirely sure why they've faded away... it

It faided away because automation based on on mouse clicks, and to a lesser
extent key injection, is very fragile. GUIs are subject to changing in
ways that are unpredictable and difficult to detect. Some GUI widget sets
provide some programatic way to access the GUI items directly for testing
and debugging purposes; but, that isn't always available in the final
product.

> Another common use is automating interactions with web sites via
> mechanize.

There are better ways of automating web site interactions. You can other
generate the GETS and POSTS directly or you can use import the browsers
through COM/XPCOM and manipulate the pages using the browser's DOM object.
From: Grant Edwards on
On 2010-08-11, Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo(a)geek-central.gen.new_zealand> wrote:
> In message <i3teqh$ckf$1(a)reader1.panix.com>, Grant Edwards wrote:
>
>> ... nobody's talking about using automated testing to figure out
>> what users think.
>
> That???s the trouble. What???s the point of a GUI, then?

OK, now you're just trolling.

<plonk>

--
Grant Edwards grant.b.edwards Yow! I guess you guys got
at BIG MUSCLES from doing too
gmail.com much STUDYING!
From: CM on
On Aug 9, 8:10 am, Alex Barna <alex.lavoro.pro...(a)gmail.com> wrote:
> I know that this question has been asked for several times, but it
> surprises that there is no tool under very active development and the
> community activities are very low (mailing list posts).
>
> All the tools listed in:
>
> http://pycheesecake.org/wiki/PythonTestingToolsTaxonomy#GUITestingTools
>
> Comparing with AutoIt (www.autoitscript.com), it has tens to hundreds
> of posts everyday. AutoIt uses a proprietary BASIC -like language, and
> to be honest, I don't like it and I prefer a Pythonic solution.
>
> pywinauto seems to be the best choice but the community has been very
> low also. The same happens in pyguiunit, pyAA, WATSUP, all development
> seem to be ceased.
>
> So what happens to this field (Windows GUI automation) ?

This is a little late, but you might want to check out Sikuli. Search
for it in
this forum, there is a long thread about it. It might be a new useful
way to
write GUI tests. I have no real idea, though.

Che
From: Alex Barna on
I'm afraid that my first post has not been understood correctly and
most of the following posts are OT, as Ben Finney indicated.

The GUI automation has a long history, perhaps since the first
windowing system was invented. For years I've been doing this using
several different technologies/languages. But to my surprise, this
ares is not very *cultivated* by Pythonistas. Many projects (see the
link in my first post) have lost the love of their maintainers and
have not been updated for years.

Except one, pywinauto, which has a recent release in April. However,
the community activity (mailing list) is very low, website and
documentation have not been updated for long also. All this freaks me
out on adopting a technology like this :

- is there still anyone using it ?
- what if I encounter a problem but no body replies me in the mailing
list ?

Comparing with the rival AutoIt, using a BASIC-like language, which I
don't like at all, has hundreads of post in the users' forum everyday.

It makes me doubt: is Python the correct language to do GUI
automation ?



P.S.: hopefully it has been clarified, my original intention of the
post is not to debate/discuss:
- *why* automating GUI ?
- whether GUI/CLI is better.
- the points GUI or CLI is designed for.
Obvious they are all OT.


Alex Barna.
From: Ben Finney on
Alex Barna <alex.lavoro.propio(a)gmail.com> writes:

> I know that this question has been asked for several times,
[…]

> So what happens to this field (Windows GUI automation [with Python]) ?

Alex Barna <alex.lavoro.propio(a)gmail.com> writes:

> It makes me doubt: is Python the correct language to do GUI
> automation ?

Your questions are definitely on-topic here. However, you might want to
make use of the “testing-in-python” forum
<URL:http://lists.idyll.org/listinfo/testing-in-python> where your
questions are even *more* on-topic :-)

--
\ “We are stuck with technology when what we really want is just |
`\ stuff that works.” —Douglas Adams |
_o__) |
Ben Finney