[BioC] using RUnit inspect() feature in package testing

[Paul Shannon]

Hi Levi,

The RUnit inspector looks like a fine piece of work, but as I read section 2.2 of RUnit.pdf, it seems to be a programmer-exploration tool, not an automated build-time assessment and reporting tool:

  The Code Inspector is an additional tool for checking detailed 
  test case cover-age and getting profiling information. It records 
  how often a code line will be executed. We utilise this information
  for improving our test cases, because we can identify code lines not 
  executed by the current test case code. The Code Inspector is able to 
  handle S4 methods. During the development of the Code Inspector, we 
  noticed, that the syntax of R is very flexible. Because our coding
  philosophy has an emphasis of maintenance and a clear style, we 
  developed style guides for our R coding. Therefore, one goal for the 
  Code Inspector was to handle our coding styles in a correct manner. 
  This leads to the consequence that not all R expression can be handled 
  correctly. In our implementation the Code Inspector has two main functional 
  parts. The first part is responsible for parsing and modifying the code 
  of the test function. The second part, called the Tracker, holds the result 
  of the code tracking. The result of the tracking process allows further 
  analysis of the executed code.

If I misjudge this, or if automated coverage calculations should appear in RUnit sometime in the future, then coverage reports would be well worth having.

 - Paul