I have a loosely similar problem in the testing that we do. In our case, as our larger hardware systems are being 'built up', we frequently don't yet have all the hardware components when we're developing our testing scripts. So it is always a major pain to construct the 'stubs' for the missing hardware.

So I've been looking around for any 'already-thought-out' strategy to take out some of the drudgery of creating the 'stubs.' Creating them always seems to involve a bunch of standard stuff and then tailoring for the specific behaviors of the specific hardware.

I have looked around on CPAN but somehow missed Test::MockObject. It sounds (at least on the surface) to be just what I've been looking for.

Looks like I'll be spending some time getting to know this potential new 'friend.'

Thanks, tirwhan.