1 <a id="top"></a> 2 # Why do we need yet another C++ test framework? 3 4 Good question. For C++ there are quite a number of established frameworks, 5 including (but not limited to), 6 [Google Test](http://code.google.com/p/googletest/), 7 [Boost.Test](http://www.boost.org/doc/libs/1_49_0/libs/test/doc/html/index.html), 8 [CppUnit](http://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawiki/cppunit/index.php?title=Main_Page), 9 [Cute](http://www.cute-test.com), 10 [many, many more](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_unit_testing_frameworks#C.2B.2B). 11 12 So what does Catch bring to the party that differentiates it from these? Apart from a Catchy name, of course. 13 14 ## Key Features 15 16 * Quick and Really easy to get started. Just download catch.hpp, `#include` it and you're away. 17 * No external dependencies. As long as you can compile C++11 and have a C++ standard library available. 18 * Write test cases as, self-registering, functions (or methods, if you prefer). 19 * Divide test cases into sections, each of which is run in isolation (eliminates the need for fixtures). 20 * Use BDD-style Given-When-Then sections as well as traditional unit test cases. 21 * Only one core assertion macro for comparisons. Standard C/C++ operators are used for the comparison - yet the full expression is decomposed and lhs and rhs values are logged. 22 * Tests are named using free-form strings - no more couching names in legal identifiers. 23 24 ## Other core features 25 26 * Tests can be tagged for easily running ad-hoc groups of tests. 27 * Failures can (optionally) break into the debugger on Windows and Mac. 28 * Output is through modular reporter objects. Basic textual and XML reporters are included. Custom reporters can easily be added. 29 * JUnit xml output is supported for integration with third-party tools, such as CI servers. 30 * A default main() function is provided, but you can supply your own for complete control (e.g. integration into your own test runner GUI). 31 * A command line parser is provided and can still be used if you choose to provided your own main() function. 32 * Catch can test itself. 33 * Alternative assertion macro(s) report failures but don't abort the test case 34 * Floating point tolerance comparisons are built in using an expressive Approx() syntax. 35 * Internal and friendly macros are isolated so name clashes can be managed 36 * Matchers 37 38 ## Who else is using Catch? 39 40 See the list of [open source projects using Catch](opensource-users.md#top). 41 42 See the [tutorial](tutorial.md#top) to get more of a taste of using Catch in practice 43 44 --- 45 46 [Home](Readme.md#top) 47
