SIMP Based Test Framework about sapio

[JeremyRubin]

Updating this issue.

Now that SIMPs exist, we do have the "contract controller" framework, sort of.

This issue should now be considered "Define SIMP for analysis and testing"

[ProofOfKeags]

What do you mean here by saying "SIMP for analysis and testing". Are these hints that tell the test framework how to drive the contract? Can that not be inferred from the ABI without SIMPs? Am I misunderstanding the issue?

[JeremyRubin]

it's a bit different. A basic example is if you have a SIMP ProveAvailableForNBlocksBefore(Target, u64) and a SIMP Target(&'static str).

You lable one template as ProveAvailableForNBlocksBefore(Target("counter_spend"), 10) and a another as Target("counter_spend")

Then, while testing, you could parse the contract for the ProveAvailableForNBlocksBefore and Target labels and try to constraint solve to check that the first template has a 10 block lead on the other.

Obviously, you can get really in the weeds on designing these types of attributes, as well as a test runner environment that can automate checking these properties, but right now contracts are barely testable at all, so basic testing hooks would really help.

These do differ from normal runtime things because you might include all sorts of stuff in them including labels for e.g. specific test scenarios (e.g., TestPoint(Scenarion(String), Box)), which can then be used for things like "Assume this transaction has been reached, then show that...".

Sorry if that's a bit vague, but this is a wide problem space.