[ODE] Unit testing

[J. Perkins]

I rolled up a bunch of different topics into my meta-post over the
weekend. I think this particular issue is important enough to warrant
a separate thread.

One of the reasons that it is so hard to get a patch into ODE is
because they are so hard to validate. A comprehensive set of unit
tests would really help here, and would also help give newcomers more
confidence in the project as a whole.

I have a fair amount of experience unit testing in .NET and Java, but
none in C++, and hence I have a lot of questions. Should we use an
existing framework, and if so, which one? Noel Llopis recommends
CxxUnit (see http://www.gamesfromwithin.com/articles/0412/000061.html),
but that would create a dependency on Perl which I would rather avoid.

Is there anyone here with experience testing in C++ who would be
willing to help set up a framework for this project? Any assistance or
feedback would be most appreciated. I'm willing to document the
framework and submit a few tests to get the ball rolling. I'll write
the whole thing if I have to, but I'd rather use that time elsewhere.

Thanks,

Jason