A.10 Input Deck Test Bench

For automated self tests a Test Bench has been developed. This tool uses the complete functionality of the Input Deck application interface (see Chapter B). Three modes are available: the interactive mode, the non-interactive mode, and the simple test mode.

In the interactive mode a menu is displayed giving an overview of the existing commands. IDDL files can be loaded or a complete database can be built up from scratch. Iterators are available to explore the hierarchy, information on all items can be queried and changed, inheritance information can be explored and modified, items can be renamed and deleted, and single variables or complete sections can be evaluated with all their nested subsections. Since it is possible to evaluate single expressions the Input Deck Test Bench can be used as a calculator as well.

For the non-interactive mode the same functionality is available as for the interactive mode. However, all input information is read from a file. The output is written to standard output which can be redirected to a file. This mode is particularly suitable for extensive automated testing using test scripts.

A simple test mode is available too which performs only a few test operations. This mode has been only used for the development of the Input Deck database and to quickly check the syntax of Input Deck files written in IDDL.