[960] Fault unknown TAP tokens in strict mode (V13+)

[Andy Armstrong]

On 16 Feb 2008, at 17:43, Michael G Schwern wrote:
>> +Returns true if the parser is operating in strict mode. Strict  
>> parsing
>> +is enabled when a TAP version number > 12 is seen. In strict mode  
>> the
>> +parser will flag parse errors for any unknown TAP tokens.
>
> Whoa there!  That's a major change.  We should talk about it.

OK. It's TAP 13 which was intended to be stricter. TAP 12 is unaffected.

> Historically, a TAP parser should ignore any unknown output for two  
> reasons:
>
> 1) It allows old parsers to still understand a subset of new TAP.

I guess we could say that a TAP version N parser will be non-strict  
when it sees TAP version N+M

> 2) It allows one to test things that print to STDOUT.

Yup. Hmm. Dunno. That's always struck me as kinda dangerous :)

> Making it dependent on the version helps with #1, I think.  I'd need  
> some
> convincing this isn't backing us into a corner.

Sure. Well I'm not convinced either.

> It doesn't solve #2.  One often doesn't have control over the code  
> they're
> testing, so it makes that impossible.
>
> At minimum I'd bump the TAP version #.  And there needs to be a way  
> to shut it
> off.  Problem is, the test itself knows best whether there's going  
> to be
> garbage on STDOUT.  So the control would lie in the test.


I quite like the idea of having to explicitly declare your test as  
stdout-dirty.

-- 
Andy Armstrong, Hexten