How can one reliably run unittests

[Johan]

On Friday, 27 August 2021 at 07:48:40 UTC, Mathias LANG wrote:
>
> But when I throw in the `-unittest` switch (or the `-cov` or 
> `-profile` for that matter), I want all the bells and whistles. 
> Give me colors, an ncurses interface, an HTTP server even! Give 
> me the full battery pack. Don't expect everyone and their 
> mother to implement their own testing framework, that's just 
> bonkers.

Why would you expect a _compiler_ to implement a testing 
framework?
If the compiler implements the testing framework, any improvement 
of the testing framework would require an update of the compiler, 
which is a _very_ large hurdle. (You want colors? You get 50 new 
language semantic changes for free!)
I think it's much better if the testing framework is 
implementated separate from anything else. That doesn't mean 
everybody has to implement it from scratch, just that they should 
download it from some other location than the compiler website.
Separation of concerns.

(by the way, I'm convinced `unittest` is a misfeature of the 
language. Besides the clear downside that is apparent from this 
thread, it hurts legibility and because of that it actually 
discourages extensive unittesting)

-Johan