Testing C++ code that relies on external host programs. #540

Channel

Is this a "C++Weekly" or "The [Fill in the Blank] Programmer" episode request? - C++Weekly

Topics

What topics are important to cover for this episode?

This comes from a real-world problem that my inexperienced brain is having trouble wrapping around. I am the sole developer of a DLL plugin for a third-party program that is used at my workplace. I have zero control over the host program and the plugin is, currently, very tightly coupled to the host's API.

"Mocking" the host program could work, but would require a lot of time.

The classes and data underneath the API are almost entirely run-time dependent, so testing is currently being done by the "try and see if it works" approach.

I was wondering if there was any advice/techniques that exist which I can try. The host program has a CLI version, but I'm not sure what would be the best way to integrate that in my test.

Length

Should this be bite-sized (5-10 minutes) or more long form (10-20 minutes)?

Probably a slightly longer episode, unless this turns out to be a trivial solution.