i think the problem you describe is a significant one, encountered less by modules which are less ambitious, algorithmically speaking:

it is really to do with the fact that your problem is dependent on a very large number of system states.

yes, you can test a few of these states for validity, whether the game plays well, but the combinatoric explosion results in test coverage that is less than statistically adequate. this has important implications for unit testing, for this type of problem.

see http://satisfice.com/testmethod.shtml for a perl implementation of one approach to solving the problem of testing for systems with large numbers of states - tho i believe your problem complexity bigger than those *it* tests.

at the site above, two different types of testing, exploratory versus scripted, are distinguished. i believe you need exploratory, tho most of our harnesses are geared towards 'scripted'.

perhaps halleys suggestion of forcing play for a small game works best, tho to do this with the range of games you have is a significant overhead.

best of luck, anyway.

...wufnik

-- in the world of the mules there are no rules --

In reply to Re: Re: Re: (OT) Help with test design by wufnik
in thread (OT) Help with test design by dragonchild

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