[Simh] Unit/functional testing simulators

[Phil Budne]

Mark Pizzolato wrote:
> ... Running these needs some sort of scripting paradigm to load, start and examine the results of such tests.

Over a decade ago I wrote a Tcl "expect" script to install ITS on a
SIMH simulated KS-10 from "install tapes".  It isn't pretty (I had to
look for input echo in order not to lose input characters in some
places), but it works, or worked, I haven't run it in a while!

ftp://ftp.ultimate.com/pdp10/its-install

Python, Ruby and Perl now have expect-like modules, so there's a wider
range of choices for scripting language-- the key thing is that simh
has to be run under a pseudo-terminal (pty)-- pipes will not do!

I'm a big believer in regression tests (ever since I joined the DEC
FORTRAN-10/20 project, which used SNOBOL4 to parse test results).
My SNOBOL4 in C project(*) has a regression test suite, and every bug I fix,
and most features I add get a test.

Phil

(*) http://www.snobol4.org/csnobol4