I am trying to understand why there is such a thing as a .t file, as opposed to just using the .pl files. Are the .t files really the same as the .pl files but with embedded tests?

When I "use" Test::Simple, Test::More, etc., in a .pl file and run it with Perl it produces test results. Likewise, running that same .pl file with prove will produce test results although the output appears different. What's the advantage of using prove? Why not simply use Perl?

Are tests embedded into production modules? If not, how does one test (verify) that the act of physically removing tests from production code didn't accidentally interject some errors?

I understand that the use of t/ directories to contain .t files is a convention for normal module installation. My problem is that I am coming from the Win32 environment using the ActiveState installation and I therefore rely on ppm for my installs. I don't get to do the "make test" part of the installation so perhaps I just don't have a full appreciation of what testing does. But I do want to have that understanding as I am working on some code I would like to distribute. I am sure development will go better if I can embed testing in it.

Thanks for any answers.

In reply to Testing - General Questions by TomKane

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