Greetings wise monks

I come to you as a man on his last resort.

I am attempting to develop an automated test scripting language for a certain IT company to automate their whole test process.

My problem is that I need my scripters to be able to identify areas of the script that may or may not be run, but in either situation, my language must output something to the screen in order for a test auditor to decide what has and hasn't been run, and why. I think an example makes things clearer. This is what I am after

startTestScript();
step a;
step b;

testBlock("Block1",checkRunningOnWindows){
      step c;
}

[download]

So in this example, if we're on windows platform step c will be executed and the script will continue. However if we're on linux, the script should output "Not runnin step c as checkRunningOnWindows failed".

Test and Test::More are very close to what I want, but insufficient becuase it skips tests but not actual code. An if..else construct is deemed to complicated for my target users (don't ask!!). A translator/parser works well, but again if the traceability between what is written and what is run is lost, my target users will not be able to debug.

Has anyone ever see, heard of or thought about any such system or solution? I have tried a couple of techniques, none of which have been too fruitful. I would love to know what you monks come up with

Many thanks

Joe

Code tags added by GrandFather

In reply to Test Blocks and skipping by joewoodhouse30

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